


Infinite Dragon Emperor

by OptimusNuva



Category: Highschool DxD (Anime)
Genre: Churches & Cathedrals, Dragons, F/M, Forests, Gen, Horny Teenagers, Lynchian, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Small Towns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2020-11-23 12:29:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20892143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OptimusNuva/pseuds/OptimusNuva
Summary: A young Issei is transformed by a childhood tragedy; now, ten years later, a string of interconnecting events leads him to fully understand the world he's fallen into, and will reunite him with a long-lost friend. Some violence, human biology, language and adolescent dialogue.





	1. Prologue

_"Behold! I am the King of **all Dragons, the Mighty Issei Hyoudou!**"_

These memories are always a little different, never 100% concrete in their details. But they always remain exactly the same, really.

Also, how ironic, I think when remembering that time. I must've been onto something!

_"Puh-lease! Tremble before the infinite awesomeness of Irina Shidou!"_

_We're role-playing, standing on some of the smaller stones in the middle of Irina's family's garden. Not that we care, to us it is a bloody and scarred battleground, the Sun receding and the wind howling. And we are the noble warriors, me as a fierce Dragon and Irina as... whatever Irina felt like. It changes more often than it stays the same. At some point isn't she a dragon too? Maybe._

_"Die, Issei, for I have summoned the ultimate power!" Irina raises her arms above and behind her head, as if holding a fireball, and chucks the imaginary sphere at me. Of course, since we both routinely bend the already-flimsy laws of physics, I create a new move just to block it. But then I realize it'd be even more impressive if I just dodged it, so I do that instead._

_"Ha! Too slow!" And then, because we are around six or so, I blow raspberry at her, or try at least. The result is laughable, but in the good way, although it is not enough to make either of us break character. We are far too focused for that. "Now you will be destroyed! Super-Ultra-Mega Death Ray!" Yes, I am still a dragon, but I am back and forth between being an alien Dragon, an exploding dragon or a ghost Dragon. Right now I settle on alien dragon. Aliens have death rays._

_I raise my left fist. I remark briefly how odd it is, since I am an extreme example of sole reliance on my dominant hand, then disregard it as unimportant to resume the battle. I clench it into a fist and perform a crude pitching gesture as if to throw a death-ray at her. In my head I imagine her dragon form (yes, I think that sounds right) swaying its long neck up to a blackened sky, screaming as it falls forward and dies._

_But she doesn't. Of course she wouldn't, we're both trying to outdo the other, and I don't even mind at that point considering we've already discarded most rules. Instead, Irina simply sidesteps and launches her own attack, even announcing it like the protagonist of some generic anime, just as I had._

_"You should watch out yourself! Flapping tornado!"_

_I chuckle, try to stifle it, and make it worse when it does inevitably escape. Then I step down off the makeshift pedestal, just laughing the whole time. Irina does too, but she's only cracking a grin._

_"What?"_

_"It's..." I break down laughing again, tears coming into my eyes. "Where'd'ya come up with that one!?"_

_"It's a serious move, Ise! I flap my wings and it causes tornadoes to form and attack you!"_

_"But..." I chuckle again, then suck air in until I can continue. "Couldn't you come up with a better name?"_

_"No," she finalizes seriously. There's a moment of silence as we begin fidgeting and forget what we were supposed to be doing, and lose any interest in returning to it anyway._

_"I'm bored. You?" _ _We turn slowly to look at each other, and a smile creeps up from the corners of our mouths. A singular smile, almost, and definitely shared._

_"Three," I begin, and we both ready ourselves._

_"Two," Irina continues, and right as I prepare to say 'one', she begins sprinting back to the house. I run after her, and while I cannot be certain, I think I begin screaming at her. Something along the lines of "Hey! WAAAAAAIIT!"_

_In truth I don't care that she started early, and I'm laughing too much to keep up with her. I stop long enough to regain my breath and finish the length at walking speed._

This is one of many memories, just to give you an idea of most of them. None of them are insanely vivid, which considering their relationship with reality makes sense. I've learned to accept they didn't happen, and that they're just what I remembered because they were covering up something far worse: the real events. Otherwise there would've been no upside, only the unfiltered pain that comes with... well, just keep going. This next memory is an important one.

* * *

* * *

_Irina's mother opens the door to let me in, and remembering what manners my parents have managed to teach me, I respond with a simple "thank you". I resume dashing inside immediately, and begin yelling for Irina. She responds by walking out of the hallway and stops by the front door where I am. Without another word we race back to the car together._

There's not much else that happens between this point and when we reach the important stuff, just the usual stuff that happens when six- or seven-year-olds are taken to playdates.

_Suddenly, as if bypassing any memory of the ride over, we're there. A park, or more accurately, some grass and trees encircling a lake. Sidewalk wraps around it, and benches and fountains are scattered throughout. There's a playground too, and my parents lead us there. Or, more accurately, point it out and let us lead the way for them._

_It's already changing. The playground is becoming... what? Irina has her own idea what it is, but to me it's an underground city. There's even a moment where the air becomes thicker as I pass through it, and there's a small gurgling noise to be heard, as if passing through a kind of portal._

_Wait, did I ever imagine that portal being anywhere in my picture of this place? Normally I would instantly assume so, but Irina says something to me, asking if I heard and felt it too. I nod nervously, but shrug it off again as mere coincidence. The two of us begin our next big battle._

_A small group of guys come sit on a bench not far from the playground, with their backs to the lake that everything else winds around. My parents are already sitting on it, so one or two of the group are left standing. The one closest to my mom starts talking, and my curiosity begins taking hold. I nudge Irina, and begin searching the playground for somewhere we can hide and listen. She quickly follows, and finds a place before I do. We get comfortable and begin listening. At first it's only little snippets of sentences, but eventually it all seems to fall into focus._

_"Well, y'see, we're on a bit of a tight schedule..." It's one of the strangers. I hear my dad scoffing._

_"Really now! But not so tight as to have to go anywhere, right? Just to try getting us to understand any of these questions, am I on the right track?" The stranger chuckles._

_"Eh-heh-heh... I'm dead serious. Give an answer we happen to agree with and we'll leave, right then and there." A pause, and then "Pinky promise?"_

_Now there's laughter. I'm not sure whose it is, but Irina and I join in, albeit quiet enough that we're not discovered listening in._

_"Okay, fine," my dad finally responds. "Pinky promise. Now what's the important question?"_

_"D'ya happen to know any of the Shidou family?"_

_"Why?" Now it's my mom. She's concerned why these strangers want to know about Irina's family, and I have to agree it's certainly odd._

_"We're good friends with them ourselves, like you."_

_"Now **why** do I have a hard time believing that!?" My dad responds angrily, and I understand why. These people won't leave!_

_"You promised," the stranger argues, almost in a joking and unconcerned tone._

_"Not to this," my mom reasons._

_"Meh, oh well." Footsteps as the stranger gets up. I sneak my head out from behind the equipment to see what's happening, and I notice two things. One, I don't see anyone else in the entire park outside of this playground. Two, the sky seems a bit... discolored. I'm not sure how, but it looks **wrong**. I even point it out to Irina and invite her to see for herself. She tells me what's wrong with the color of the sky._

_"I think that might be because it's not blue. It's purple."_

_"What!? No way!"_

_"Yeah, it is!" I suddenly see it. Irina's right! The sky's almost reddened. What's going on!?_

_I return my focus to the strangers. I see the one that seems to be the leader turn to a woman already standing._

_"Curious question: can I do it here?"_

_"Do what here?" My mom asks, but the leader ignores her. The stranger simply replies to her leader: "I believe so; there's no reason you wouldn't be able to." He nods, then turns back to my parents._

_"I'm sorry, but I regret nothing," he comments offhandedly before waving his hand. I will later compare it to Obi-Wan Kenobi's use of the Force. I see my parents suddenly stiffen, but just continue watching. I can't see her, but I imagine Irina is too._

_"Alrighty, let's get some answers!" But the stranger that the leader had been sitting next to on the bench suddenly spoke up._

_"Uh, are you aware that was entirely unnecessary?" The leader turns, and the sitting stranger points. At us._

_"Even better! Well, I guess you've officially been declared redundant!" I don't know what that word means yet, but just the way he uses it tells me it's nothing good._

_"Whuh..." My dad asks suddenly._

That's when it happens, and it happens fast. _The one remaining on the bench suddenly pulls something from his jacket. I jump back a little where I stand when I see it._

_"Can I do it, boss? Please? I wanna test it out!" The leader sighs as if annoyed, but his voice has some level of hopeful enthusiasm to it, as if he too is a little anxious to test whatever it is this other stranger has._

_"Go ahead, have at it." The leader continues walking triumphantly towards us, but we remain frozen. We've stopped thinking about what might happen, or at least I have. I don't know what Irina's thinking. But I know I'm transfixed, just gazing in wonder and horror as the stranger pulls out what appears to be... oh no!_

_I give myself no time to react, I simply scream, or begin to._

_"He's got-" Irina claps a hand over my mouth with impossible speed, although this probably does nothing. The strangers - _I later learned they were Devils_ \- know we are there, and that we are seeing everything. They probably turn their heads before shrugging and turning back, except I don't see it if they do._

_I hear the gunshot. My eyes immediately water, out of a combination of startlement and the immediate understanding. I begin sobbing through Irina's hand, and I hear her stifling tears too. Suddenly, as quick as they come, they're gone. I stop crying, and something inside me changes. I'm... blank. I don't feel anything._

_I'm not sure how, but I end up breaking free of her hold on me and I step out from where we were 'hiding'. I don't see my parents, only a little wisp of red smoke in the shape of their bodies. The leader of these killers turns to look at me, then back towards where my mom and dad once existed. I see him smirk as he takes a deep breath, and blows the smoke away. The human-like shapes are destroyed. The last remnant of my parents, gone._

_"That worked well!" The leader taunts. I just... stand there, frozen both physically and mentally. I don't think, and I see everything as if I'm not there, just witnessing it._

_"Well, what are you going to do?" The leader spreads his arms wide and turns his head up in a gesture of defenselessness. "C'mon, I won't resist! I only just had your parents killed and probably need to kill you and your friend over there to keep you quiet!" As he mentions Irina, he turns his wrist and points at where she is still sitting, unmoving._

_I register what he says and begin running, not toward him, but away. I don't want to die, and at this time I'm not sure what I'm thinking or even if I am at all. They don't follow me, and I realize why when I'm suddenly slammed back to the ground. I'd collided with something!_

_I see it now. The red filter that made the outside world look the way it did, and the lines seemingly drawn into the ground. We'd passed through it, and even noticed the transition, and now we're trapped!_

_And that's when something else happens, and if I was thinking at all before, I'm certainly not now. Now it's all instinct, and I truly become just a witness. Thinking comes later._

_I turn back to face the group of strangers. No, Devils. That's what they are, I don't know how but I know it sounds right. I don't just turn, I begin running. Slowly, then with incredible speed._

** _("Boost!")_ **

_That's not my voice. I don't feel my throat move, and if I did it would burn from sounding so low and gravelly yet powerful at the same time. How!?_

_Never mind, I won't get an answer anyway. I raise my left fist again towards the leader as I run, and for a brief moment I feel as if I'm going to break apart. Somewhere my inner anger and grief manage to push something out of me, or into me, I'm not sure yet._

** _("Balance Breaker!")_ **

_Instinct tells me this shouldn't be possible, even considering everything so far. Whatever this voice calls "Balance Breaker" sounds extremely dangerous, especially for my body (can I still say myself since I've become so removed from my own body?). I might die, and I have no idea why any of this is happening!_

_I don't see or feel it, but I can sense it. Somehow, the Devils that killed my parents have ceased to exist, and it seems so have I..._

_The last thing I hear before blacking out is Irina yelling something. And then nothing._

I should also add that what happened right there shouldn't be possible, but there are a lot of things that shouldn't be possible. That, and it's not possible.

* * *

* * *

_"Issei?"_

_My eyes jerk open, and I sit up immediately, startled. If there's any pain I don't feel it. I look around. Irina's house._

_I'm remembering what happened now. Those Devils killed my parents! They were going to kill us too, and we'd walked straight into their trap! How were we alive now!?_

_Who was speaking?_

_I turn and see Irina sitting on her knees next to me. I look forward and see Irina's parents, a bit farther away but still watching me closely._

_"I'm okay," I say. I couldn't think of anything else to say, but that was probably good enough. And it is. I'd spoken, proving I haven't somehow gone mute and that I am still myself. I do some shifting and get to my feet._

_"I'm so sorry, Issei," Irina's mother says, and I remember what the leading Devil was asking my parents about._

_"Why were those Devils asking about you!?"_

_I turn to look at Irina, and follow her eyes back to her parents, who look at each other grimly. They turn back to me, and Irina's dad pulls a silvery crucifix on a string from around his neck. He holds it out for me to see._

_"Do you know what this is, Issei?" I nod, and he continues. "That's right, it's a cross." I see Irina's mother pull her own cross from around her neck, and I remember that Irina once showed me hers. "It's also a symbol."_

_"Of what?"_

_"Who we are and what we do. We've declared ourselves to be servants of God, and there's quite a bit of danger to that. Do you know what a Devil is?"_

_"Those men were Devils!" I blurt out, and Irina's dad doesn't look surprised. I see him mutter something but can't catch what._

_"Yes, they were. And they wanted to kill us. We know who they were, and had they been more careful they would've killed us. The sad part is they got to you first."_

_"What happened?" After a moment he realizes I want to know what happened after I blacked out, so he tells me._

_"We found you lying unconscious on the playground. We saw the remains of an Entrapment Circle, and we knew immediately what happened. You killed those guys that killed your parents. From what Irina tells us, you used a power that might've killed you too."_

_"What power?" I forget any questions I might have about what an Entrapment Circle, and then realize he means the force-field we were trapped in. I wanted to know how I was able to kill those Devils! As much as I know I hate them for probably killing my parents, the idea of taking their lives sounds so horrifying!_

_"That's a bit more complicated. All you need to know is that those Devils will never be able to hurt you again, and you saved Irina's life."_

_"We'll be taking you to your Aunt Yasaka's in a couple hours," Irina's mother adds._

_Aunt Yasaka? Who's that?_

_That's unimportant, I realize, so I say nothing. If she's not a Devil, I'm okay with that._

_I start sobbing again, and step toward the two. They comfort me, and so does Irina. My parents are dead, but my best friend is alive, so that's got to be good enough. I don't think I reach this conclusion on my own, but still it convinces me I won't spend the rest of my life grieving, which I'm grateful for._

_My parents were killed by creatures that were probably some type of demon. I used a dangerous power to kill them without ever realizing it and somehow Irina's parents found us before anyone else did._

You can see why I'm a bit skeptical. Everything I knew I felt in these memories was so real, yet nothing else could be. So what does that mean?

* * *

* * *

_The mood backseat is extremely awkward, and it's because I've been told the rest of the plan. Irina and I are still getting along fine, but are both preparing to have to be peeled off each other when the time comes. We say nothing about it though, just keep on exactly as we always do, albeit a bit gloomier. I try to tell myself that I never saw my parents die, for better or worse: for all you know that gun could've teleported them!_

_No, that's not right. That Devil told me they were dead. And so did Irina's family. They're dead. 'Thinking long and hard about it won't make it any more or less true,' my dad had once said. 'It doesn't do any good to just deny anything.'_

_We're in the middle of a game of rock-paper-scissors when the car stops. I make one final, destructive move which ends with her own paper in two pieces, and unbuckle. Irina quickly does the same, and we step out of the car almost in unison._

_The woman claiming to be my aunt is standing in the doorway, smiling warmly. (_One guess in retrospect is that she was trying her best to ease all of us, which would make sense.) _When she sees me her arms open as if to pick me up and hug me from two dozen feet away. I'm not amused, just become almost entirely expressionless._

_"Issei!" She says, which makes me somehow more afraid rather than less. Irina's mother offers her hand, and I take it. The gesture itself speaks more than she herself ever can. It's a little uncertain for her too, and we're all there. Irina takes my other hand - the one that I now associate with what happened. My left hand. Together we walk to the doorway, and Yasaka drops into a kind of squat to reach eye-level with me._

_"Well, kiddo, I guess you'll be staying with me for a while, huh?" She reaches to ruffle my hair but I pull back immediately. Irina and her mother are pulled back a little by the sudden motion. I take a step forward and she smiles again. This time I think it's better._

_"I'm sorry," I apologize. Yasaka stands up again to talk with Irina's mother, and Irina herself turns to face me. We realize now is the time. We suddenly hug each other and I think some tears are shed. She doesn't say anything like 'stay' or 'don't go'; she's far too understanding of the situation overall to do anything like that. She understands I can't stay with them, but that doesn't mean she has to like it either. I don't think anyone does._

_"So goodbye then?" is what she says instead. It's a question rather than a statement. It opens the possibility that we will see each other again._

_"I don't know," I answer, and I'm entirely honest. I have no clue what comes next, no matter how much I want to know. We're still hugging each other for dear life as we talk._

_"Promise me you'll find me," she says, and I nod into her shoulder._

_"Okay," I almost whisper. "I'll try."_

_Yasaka and Irina's mother turn back to look at the two of us, still clinging to one another. I see this, and so does Irina, and I follow their eyes back to Irina's father, who is waiting by the car. They didn't plan to stay for long, which I already know. It's time for them to leave, as soon as possible._

_Irina joins her mother as they walk back to the car, leaving me just outside Yasaka's doorway. There's a moment of awkward silence rivaling that of the drive here, then Yasaka clears her throat._

_"Uhm, would you like to come inside, Issei?" I look up at her, and nod, then step inside. "I've already got all your stuff in a room down the hall. I can show you right now if you want." I begin walking with her, not wondering how she already has all my things from my house._

I'll definitely ask later though. And among that are a plethora of other questions. How much does Yasaka know? My best guess for a time would be probably nothing. How is it that all traces of Irina's family disappeared from history after that day? Based on what I'd been told they probably lived almost nomadically. Of course, there was another explanation too.

It didn't happen. Yes, my parents died and I was taken to live with Yasaka, an immediate relative I didn't even know existed. But the rest? Absolute bullshit. Irina wasn't real, her family wasn't real, the Devils and my interaction with them were completely made-up. And that answer fits better than anything else, because I was a kid with an overactive imagination who couldn't bear to see his parents' death for what it really was. So I created a work of fiction to act like a band-aid, covering up what really happened to make it less painful. Here I would have lost my parents but been able to save my best friend. In real life there was no best friend and I had been powerless, and in my experience no one hates anything more than being powerless.

Being the idiot I was, did I ever once ask Yasaka about what happened to my parents? Absolutely not. Did I ever ask about how all my stuff from my house ended up in hers before I ever arrived? Not at all. I just kind of... forgot these questions and moved on. It was all I could do. And it wasn't like I could keep my promise to a figment of my imagination, now could I?

"It doesn't do any good to just deny anything."


	2. Act I: The Empty Years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...

But that was years ago. At the time, six, to be exact. Twice the age I was then is the age I am "now". A lifetime since, maybe.

And in that lifetime, I'd slowly but surely settled into things, and once I settled I think I stayed settled. Yasaka was not the only person I had to get used to: she had a daughter, not too much younger than me, named Kunou. In addition there was a roommate - or perhaps several of them, I can't be certain. These roommates would come and go in unpredictable patterns, staying a couple days before leaving for a couple weeks. One in particular I like to think I made a connection with. Somehow I never managed to catch his actual name but he'd always make jokes about what it was, comparing himself to Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films, or something about a homemade knife. He called me "apprentice" a lot, and I called him whatever nickname Yasaka gave him, which tended to vary. Although I also had my own nickname for him if I couldn't hear what she'd address him by.

(Sheev, shiv, _ _ _ _ _)

I attended school. I knew quickly that I'd grow to hate it, and wasn't proven wrong by any means. Math wasn't too hard when it was simple but there got to be _so many rules!_ Same story with any other subject. I barely passed anything and it took everything I could to maintain even that, and later I learned why, but we'll get to that later. The teachers there didn't seem bad, just a bit distant and didn't seem to care. The other kids were all chatty and some internal intuition told me none of them cared about one another, despite their obvious desires to make friends if only for the sake of promoting their own social standing. A couple that were sincere were actually mostly jerks, but they were honest jerks and that much was a comfort of sorts. Always preferable company to the giggly sociopaths that made up the majority of the student body. And like me they detested school, which made them easier to understand. Even the smart ones I met, and they obviously had a better sense of their own direction than any a teacher or class could ever give them.

Home life got... tricky, very quickly. Yasaka was understanding enough and didn't seem to worry too much about my school situation, and Kunou was fine, if an annoying little sister could ever be called such. As for "Sensei" as I nicknamed my favorite of Yasaka's roommates, he also seemed to understand, although neither one did anything to help. They weren't the problem. I was.

Not even real problems. Sure, I witnessed my parents die in front of me and my best friend - real or not - was taken from me, but that's life. So what if I happen to relive it every night in a more distorted, more vividly painful way? So what if I happen to be living with someone who I'd never met before the day I was dropped at her doorstep? My closest friend during the best years of my life may not be real? No problem! Not to worry, you can't stop wondering if anything that's happened since is real either but that's okay! Can't trust anyone, even the ones you're pretty sure you love as family? Worry not, that's perfectly normal! Incapable of understanding why an event in the past is having such a profound effect on an otherwise empty present? Life's a progression of past to present to future, get over it!

And it seemed to never stop. Nothing happened except a repeat of the same events for a course of six years or so, or so it seemed. I have no idea how six years passed like that, even when I can safely say I was a special kind of dim bulb. How did I do that?

Fast-forward to one night, when the pattern was broken...

* * *

* * *

I'd woken up vaguely aware that I'd screamed. My throat burned, and I was sweating what felt like needles from every pore, yet shivering at the same time. I'd barely had time to sit up before Yasaka was in the room, and the lights came on. I cried out a bit in shock. _God, why'd ya have to blind me!?_

"Issei, what's wrong?" Rhetorical question, even a bit annoying at this point. But I knew Yasaka well enough to know that she'd never ask a question she didn't mean to ask, and I appreciated that. I swallowed, eyes still pinched shut and my right arm thrown over my face, and spoke in a croaky voice. I'd probably done a good deal of screaming.

"I'm okay." A lie. Or at least not the whole truth. I had no idea if I was okay or not, and that at least would be telling you the truth. But Yasaka, no matter how much she understood, wouldn't accept that for an answer.

"'Okay' doesn't mean screaming in your sleep. Now, what's going on? It's happened before and I want to help but you have to let me first." I said nothing in response, just stubbornly held my arm over my eyes in a way I realized later was probably more than a bit rude. In the silence she chose to talk again.

"What was the nightmare about? Were you there again?" I nodded, suddenly remembering it for the first time and realizing that would be correct. A moment or so later I heard a click (that would be the light switch, thank God) and felt my bed sink a little under a new amount of weight. An arm bumped my elbow as it came down and a hand landed in my hair. Also kind of annoying but on the same level comforting, as it was intended to be. I'm certain I relaxed a little without ever realizing I'd ever tensed up.

"I'm so sorry, Issei," she said lowly, still stroking my scalp. "Do you need me to stay in here with you?"

Without any better way of responding, I simply shook my head. As if to indirectly override that, she seemed to wrap herself around me, protecting me from whatever it was that decided I should relive the past in dream form. I think I loved her for that, and appreciated that ability she had to know exactly what I needed even when I don't realize I need it.

She stayed there for a while before she thought I was asleep. And when that happened, she got up quietly and left the room. After that I chose to lay there, contemplating whatever conspiracies I could. _She could be just trying to gauge what I do and don't believe_ was a popular hidden explanation for her behavior. Knowing me, she probably thought I wouldn't have noticed, but I did. Of course I'd never once considered at this time that she really did just care about my wellbeing and knew what had happened would always have that jarring effect on me, nor was I aware at all of any of the more disturbing things that would happen later. For now she was a mother-figure who might or might not be sincere, and any more or less than that was impossible to say.

_Might know where she is_, another part of me considered. _She might even **be** a Devil!_

_No, she would've done something by now if she were a Devil,_ another subconscious voice argued. _She very well could be exactly what she says she is: an aunt who you didn't know existed until you were left in her custody. You were very young then, after all._

_Exactly._

And I fell asleep, still turning those last two sentences over and over in my mind. I didn't dream this time, except of things I can't remember, which was undoubtedly a mercy.

* * *

* * *

That was how the change started, or perhaps it led up to the change, I can't be certain. It certainly wasn't the first time I'd thought like that, and it wouldn't be the last.

It had been on a Sunday night (or perhaps early Monday morning, depending on how you define that transition time around midnight) and that next morning, unfortunately, meant school.

And I was, of course, very sluggish getting up. So sluggish, in fact, that Yasaka had to ask Sensei (who fortunately had gotten home some time that same night) to drive me there. Typically I would've had time to walk, but not today. I was, after all, very sluggish getting up.

He was talkative today, and I tried my best to talk to him.

"So, my young apprentice," he began in his usual mock-enthusiastic voice that to me was always his most genuine form of affection. A moment later he decided what he wanted to ask. "What's been going on?" A very mundane and honestly vague question, which he then decided to clarify by adding, "At school, I mean, with all those guys and gals ya happen to hang out with. Any fun events coming up and such?" I shrugged in response.

"I don't know. I barely even talk to them, actually." I saw him seem to turn this over in his mind, although his exact thoughts were completely unreadable, as they normally were.

"Well..." He began again, and I saw him drumming his fingers against the wheel. Had he been doing that the whole time? Probably. He also seemed to sway his head from side to side as he again considered what to say next. And he did. "You should do that more."

"Why?" Now I could see some of what he was thinking. It looked just a bit like confusion. And then it was gone.

"Because human beings are social animals, generally speaking. No matter how withdrawn a human is they're not built to be alone. Leave the being alone to the wild felines and rodents and such. If ya live up north you'd leave it to the moose and bears. We probably have some bears around here too, now that you think of it."

"And what do bears have to do with me making friends? Better question: how do you know for certain I'm a human?" I saw him smile now. He wagged a finger at me in a form of congratulation.

"Now that's the kind of thinking this world needs, especially in these dark times!" I grinned too.

"Those dark times being?" I asked in curiosity. He was probably just joking, or you could say times were always dark, or he could be serious.

"Why, the revolution of course!" He threw up his free hand and raised it into a belligerent fist, like a rebel seeking blood. In all his waving and gesturing the hand on the wheel didn't falter, and he seemed to know exactly where to steer while keeping perfectly stable, all while darting his eyes back and forth between myself and the road. Yasaka told me he'd been a stunt driver for a while, and then a professional racer, and it was apparent here.

There was a bit of silence, and then we were in the parking lot. I reached down under my seat for my backpack before realizing...

"Aw, shit!" He yelled, and then corrected himself. Yasaka had probably told him to tone down the profanity. He threw a hand over his mouth, muttered an "oops!" and corrected himself. "Oh, crap. Is 'crap' considered profanity?" I shrugged, and then decided to shake my head. He nodded in return. "Right-o, let's go get your backpack. How do you feel about driving really slow on the way back?"

I nodded, my smile bigger than ever.

* * *

* * *

"They could be aliens."

"What?"

That was my closest friend's first words as I approached her that afternoon, and we began the usual partial walk home. Ophis was her name, and she was one of the smartest people I'd ever met, although she clearly couldn't care any less than she already did. I'd told you about that, right?

"Those things that you mentioned. The Devils, right? They could be aliens, and what you saw was an abduction. They know you witnessed it and they created the identities of Yasaka and everyone else to keep an eye on you. Maybe even drive you mad in the process, so no one would ever believe what you say."

"I don't even believe what I say!"

"That's my point."

"You're not helping." I smiled grimly, and realized she probably was. "Besides, I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"I remember _killing_ them."

"Them, maybe. But an alien species isn't just a handful of people. Unless..." And then she trailed off. "Unless they're a near-extinct race of parasites who had to abduct your family in order to use as hosts, and you killed some of them in the process!" She seemed to experience a sudden outburst of energy and she jumped up, as if brainstorming made her hyper. It probably did. Scratch that, **definitely** did.

"I might've killed all of them."

"Except the ones that are watching you now, of course."

"I still don't think so. It's not aliens."

"You still can't be certain of that."

"How, then? How did I kill them?" She seemed to have no answer, until she did.

"You're _one of them_," she said, grinning. I didn't smile back. It took her a moment but she realized she'd struck a nerve, and hard. We continued in silence for a while before eventually she turned one way and I turned the other.

That was how it usually was with Ophis - simple discussion. The one person I could bother telling anything to without being concerned how they'd take what I said. She didn't seem to care, and if she did I never saw it. I guess I preferred it that way. I'd understand much more in detail later.

* * *

* * *

Now comes the time when I'm home, and the first thing I do is sleep. And sleep means dreams.

* * *

_"Promise me you'll find me," she says, and I nod into her shoulder._

_"Okay," I almost whisper. "I'll try."_

_We're clinging to each other for dear life. I don't want this moment to end. I want it to stretch out until eternity and beyond the end of that. We'll never meet again, so just let "never" and "again" become irrelevant! I could stand there forever and ever and..._

_Suddenly I'm not._

_I'm back in the park. The sky's purple. The bench is in front of me, and no one's on it. There's no fearful Irina standing behind, fearing for her life and for everyone else's. This time I'm alone._

_There's an oscillating noise, grinding the insides of my ears in time with the now-apparent pulsing of the thing Irina's father had called an Entrapment Circle. It hurts, but I know there's nothing I can do about it. Instead I wait._

** _"BOOST!"_ ** _ some voice somewhere yells. Powerful, prideful, and murderous yet playful at the same time. I can imagine the speaker dressed in bright red battle armor and a cheery smile on his face, teeth stained in the blood of hundreds of fallen adversaries. The word he speaks is exactly as I'd heard it before._

_I can feel it summon something within me; some part that I can perceive like a limb but located nowhere on my body, yet as connected to me as any limb if not more so. It stirs, and suddenly I want nothing more than to destroy this entire wreck that held so much pain. I want to smash and crack and stab and burn everything I see, and smile and laugh and celebrate and indulge in the victory of ending it! But..._

_But I can't. The place is irrelevant. The people in it were the true holders of that pain. The Devils that killed, the parents that were killed, and the children who died watching it. Without them it's just a place. And an empty place at that._

_And I'm back in Irina's arms, hugging her even more tightly than before. I don't care how such a sudden transition is made, just want to enjoy this moment again, however much it may hurt later._

_"I won't just try, I will." Now tears come freely._

_"You'd better!" She sounds exactly as I remember, although she'd never said that. It's present - not just a memory but a moment. "Please, please just promise me you will! Not just trying, but you **will**!"_

_"I don't think I can," I respond honestly, and something seems to snap. Or crack, and gradually shatter. Just like I said I'd wanted to._

_"Please..." She repeats it, and I can hear weeping as she does. She's in pain. "Please..." Weaker this time. "Please..." Fading, not just in volume but in presence. "Please..." I can't see her and I can still feel her solid against me, but she too is becoming empty. Like the playground. "Plea..." She never finishes it. She ceases to exist, and the girl I'm holding onto for dear life becomes a limp corpse._

_That voice returns, somehow still bold yet saddened in one word. The same one word: **"BOOST!"**_

_I look up at the sky. It's still purple. I never left this place, and I wonder now why I ever thought I had. The noise never left either. Just keeps thrumming, never any change in volume or tone. The same sound forever and ever and ever and ever._

_Tears come, and I wonder why. The answer might or might not be sitting on the tip of my tongue, but I still can't understand. Am I sad? Angry? Scared? Lonely? I don't know. I can conclude that I feel... nothing. I'm empty too._

_And I stand there forever and ever and ever. Entirely empty._


	3. Act I: Pried

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Issei does more thangs!

That dream was followed by another jarring transition between the states of dream and conscious. I bolted straight up before my eyes were open, and my mouth was open but no sound came out. I looked down silently at the floor, and at the light coming through the windows. I sighed, and began to breathe normally again; I'd been holding my breath. (Why does that sound familiar...?)

Light...?

It was morning!

And that meant...

_I'm late!_

But that was only my thinking, and not my actions. Externally, I simply drifted back down until I was laying on my back again, and exhaled a little. I'm not even sure why. It wasn't exactly a relief, and I don't exactly think strongly about maintaining or breaking a pattern, no matter what that pattern is. And like I said before, I'm not certain when things seemed to change, but this was simply the confirmation.

I slowly got out of bed, and as soon as I opened the door that morning I heard Yasaka yelling for me to get ready. I think I might've also heard Sensei too, although this time I heard Yasaka call him something goofy like "She-Man". I grinned quickly as I heard it and it vanished from my face just as quickly.

That morning I was again driven to school, and used Yasaka's nickname of the day for him. He gave me a blank look and was silent until I spoke again. Of course I knew all along he was only going with it, and pretending to be insulted. And since we both knew that then the silence was a reward, not a punishment.

"How bad was that?"

"Very," he replied, and added: "You seem... I don't know, maybe a bit different?" I paused. Did I? I might've felt a little different but how much did that affect my outward expression? A lot? A little? I didn't imagine I'd come across any different, yet here Sensei was saying that's exactly what was happening.

"Did I ever tell you about my current job?" I shook my head. "I'm in demolition. I get to destroy stuff. It's been a lifelong dream. I mean," he paused for effect, "_one_ of my dreams. Aside from racetracks and wisecracks, that is!" I smiled, and he grinned too.

"You destroy stuff? How?" And he was silent.

"I'd tell ya, but then I'd have to kill ya." He gave another smile and from then on remained mute.

* * *

So he took me to school, and once again it was just another day. Exactly like any other day, regardless of whatever new perspective I'd see it in. Nothing I could ever hope to remember or find reason to do so. And after school came a little bit of walking with Ophis. And suddenly, as if prompted by the change I couldn't find but I could feel, I asked a question.

"I'm surprised I've never asked before, but where exactly do you live?"

She seemed a bit shocked, and while we kept walking she said nothing for a while. Then she answered, in a very defensive way, or at least one that felt defensive.

"Doesn't matter, it's a place that exists in this time and this area."

"Meaning?" Of course, I was an idiot at this age and I didn't realize until later that if she didn't want to talk about it it wasn't worth getting into. Not that it mattered in the end anyway. She kept details to a minimum in a way that I had to admire in its completeness.

"It has four walls, a ceiling and in some places a floor!" She responded with a bit of a joking grin that somehow got it through to me that I shouldn't pursue it anymore. So I didn't, and instead shifted into that same positive silence. We didn't speak because we didn't need to. Two or three more blocks and a million years passed, and that's when I spoke again.

"I think I'm going crazy. Crazier than normal."

"How so?"

I told her about it. And I realized that it almost seemed like no time had passed at all between this morning and now. Like all of time in between had ceased to exist. The exact short spiel I proceeded to give was something like this:

"I feel... different. Today, I mean. Like there's something that hasn't happened for a long time but all of a sudden it _is_ happening. I have no idea what it is, but maybe there's some sort of burden that's been lifted, maybe?"

Ophis "hmm"'ed in a signal of attentive hearing, but let me keep talking.

"Do you think this is going to be a permanent thing, or is it just going to come and pass?"

"I don't know. You'll just have to wait and see." After a moment, she added: "Do you still think about Irina?"

I was silent again, and had to actually think about it.

"When did I tell you; I don't remember telling you about that." She shrugged.

"There's a lot of things you don't remember, just like there's a lot of things you remember far too clearly. Anyway, back to the original question, and perhaps I should be a bit clearer here: how much have you thought about Irina since you felt this... change, whatever it is?"

"To be honest, I don't think I've though about much at all today, and I can't remember thinking about Irina at all. That's not bad memory, that's me _knowing_ I haven't thought about it. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Ophis shook her head, uncertain.

"No idea. I think it's a situation where you'll know it when you see it." She really had no idea at all.

"That's helpful."

"Best that I can do. I'm a lazy, disobedient genius, not a trained therapist!" I smiled, and realized that a certain lazy, disobedient genius had timed this conversation and its end perfectly. We were at the fork where I'd turn left and she'd turn right. She stepped into the empty street and was on her way without ever once stopping. She waved to me without ever turning back.

"See you tomorrow!" I called out. And I saw her turn and yell.

"See ya!"

I suddenly got a little feeling that something was wrong, and then wondered if I'd always felt that.

* * *

* * *

By the time I was home, I could barely remember the stuff I'd said with Ophis. Yasaka greeted me as I came through the door.

"Issei!" And no questions about how school was, or anything else. It probably went against every fabric of her being not to ask how things like that were, but there are certain things people don't ask or say to one another. And because I arrived at roughly the same time every day, there was no need to ask why I was late or comment that I was home early.

Kunou was apparently intent on being even more hyper than usual, because as soon as I registered Yasaka's voice I heard Kunou yelling and shoes clomping and stomping. Then I saw her come out of the hallway and stop directly in front of me. And take a breath. And scream, giggle and smile at the same time? Was that supposed to even be possible? And I stood there, and when she was done she took another breath and screamed "HI, ISSEI!" And then ran off again.

Shouldn't kids grow out of that sort of thing by now? Even so, Kunou was living proof to argue against that concept. As she ran off, I noticed now that she seemed to be wearing some sort of Halloween costume, like a cartoon animal. One that was apparently gold-furred and had at least one tail.

I saw Yasaka sitting at the kitchen table, setting something down on a tray. She shook her head and smiled.

"Kids these days," she said, chuckling a little, as if I were another mother thinking the exact same thing. I nodded in agreement, understanding the basis of what she meant. When I took a seat in one of the high-legged chairs that we all enjoyed, I peered over to see what was in the tray. I can't remember what it was I saw, only that it would make a great dinner.

Then I saw her bring out another tray. And a third. Possibly a fourth or even a fifth; it just seemed to go on and on.

"Uhm...?" Yasaka, knowing what I was asking about before I could even form the words to ask, answered quickly.

"We're having some people over for dinner tonight. Important business people that I happen to work with. Something about 'blah blah, this restaurant's a terrible choice for a meeting, blah blah blah, let's ask Yasaka at the last minute what we can do at her place!'" Her head started bobbing from side to side as she impersonated her coworkers, and we shared a grin.

"It looks pretty delicious. Can I help?" She nodded, and gestured to the trays again.

"Give those time, and in a while I'll call you back and we can set them up on the dinner table. Or maybe we'll just leave them here, I'm not sure yet. I heard three hours, which in the terms of the people I work with, translates to either _two_ hours or up to _five_ hours. Just be ready when I call you, okay?" I nodded. She held her hand out in a gesture for me to come, and I did. She hugged me, and I hugged back. She crouched and kissed my forehead. She also muttered an affectionate phrase in Japanese which translated to something like "I love you, little dragon." Every word seemed to stir my subconscious on some level, and I got that feeling of deja vu. I hugged her a little tighter, and then she let go. I ran off to my room, hoping that she'd call me out later. I'm not sure what was so appealing about that, it just was.

* * *

I shut the door and laid on my bed for a while, just noticing now how hot it was this time of year. A bit like needles, and almost cold. I some way I found I liked it. Although no matter how much I liked the heat, I couldn't stand boredom. I needed to do something, and preferably something that could hold my interest.

I could see something. Not outside, or around me at all. Inside, in the one place you can never see with your eyes but you and everyone else are always looking. And I wanted to get it out, and to see it for myself in the real world.

Is that what you feel when you want to draw? Because I wanted to draw. And although I could see it clearly, I had no idea what I wanted to draw. I stepped out into the hall and called out to Yasaka.

"Do you know where I can find some paper and pencils?" No one answered; Yasaka was probably busy, and Kunou was god-knows-where. This wasn't by any means a bad time to explore the house on my own, and I had the time. Strangely, this house still had areas I didn't know after all this time. Six years living here and a twelve-year-old still needs to explore his own house!

I found some interesting stuff while I looked, such as a couple old mythology books on a shelf in a back room I might or might not have ever realized was there. They were tattered and by the look of it if I were to pick one up it would fall apart. So I didn't touch or even come near them. There were a few other shelves in there as well, but nothing I could use.

Out of curiosity I pulled one of the books out. It must've been carefully manufactured to look like a piece of junk because I could open the cover smoothly and silently. Inside were sketches and notes: handwritten, and full of those little side-notes and scribbles only the writer could've possibly been able to read. This one seemed to be about Hinduism, and the page fell open to the part about the Hindu Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Shiva was circled in what looked like red marker that, in the dim light of the closet, seemed to glow in the dark.

"Huh," I muttered. It kind of sounded like someone I'd know, but I couldn't be sure who. It was on the tip of my tongue; I could practically spit the name out right next to Shiva's. (Later when I realized what was happening I chuckled a little bit and remembered I was a dumb kid. Although, I guess, considering the way these things happened I wouldn't have found out sooner even if I tried.) I found little markings which I hadn't seen before, and these happened to be jottings I could read:

_"WATCH HIM"_.

"Watch him," I muttered. "Watch Shiva." Pretty soon more of the text started to make sense. Chickenscratch practically became digital print, and I discovered that Shiva was the third of the Trinity associated with destruction. One creates, another protects, and one destroys. And it made sense: if they were in charge of all the universe, they needed to keep each other in check. If the creator were to create too much, the destroyer's job would be to cut out what the universe couldn't handle. And if the destroyer got out of line, the protector would put up enough resistance that the destroyer would know where to stop. It's weird. I could look beyond the edges of the physical world to see what was implied here, but couldn't see what was right in front of me. And part of the reason I couldn't see it was because I was distracted so often.

I flipped to another page at random and although I'd never seen the thing before I couldn't ever miss recognizing it. Especially not those red eyes. The stare they gave me through the paper was enough to make me angry, and frightened.

And that's when I realized it. This picture was what I'd wanted to draw.

I shut the book quickly, not wanting or needing to see anymore. Then I placed it back on the shelf, and suddenly realized there'd been a single side-note written on the paper:

_"WATCH OUT FOR THE REDHEADS. THE WINGED DOG KILLED THEM."_

And that too seemed to elicit that same feeling of anger, and of fear, this time much more distant but just as present. The book was already on the shelf again, exactly where I'd left it. Now I just needed to find that paper and pencils again.

* * *

I found them after a short while and a bit of rummaging, and immediately brought them back to my room, where I would lay the paper on the floor and pull out black and red crayons. And I scribbled at it, lost in myself as I tried to externalize the thing I was seeing: a black, shapeless, almost fluid cloud with narrow red slits that saw through your soul, and leathery black wings which were shriveled and useless. In front of it, nimble hands drawn together as you'd expect an evil schemer to hold them, and clawed. These were barely distinguishable from the cloud that was the creature's body, but just enough that you could tell they existed at all. I don't think it had feet.

It took me quite a few tries to get it right, and once I did I didn't even stop there. I'd made a dozen good ones and two dozen deformed ones when I decided to stop, and by that time it seems I'd gotten them all down to solid lookalikes.

I remembered something else, and got out a different color now: greyish, roughly resembling silver.

I'd drawn a pistol in the hand of one of the creatures. Exactly as I'd remembered it.

Now I stopped to look at it, and decided this one looked like the leader.

_Had there been a leader?_

_Yes, there had been. And I'm certain._

_(He's the one who killed them both. **It** was the one that had died first.)_

How did I know that? I'd blacked out and had to be told later what happened. Ir-... _her_ parents told me later I'd killed them, but they hadn't even known how or why. They'd just found us unconscious in the park.

I think I needed to remember what happened. And so I tried.

_The leader_ \- yes, there had been one - _held the pistol in his hand, and while I'd squeezed my eyes as he fired that single shot, I knew my parents were gone when I opened my eyes again. They didn't even fall to the ground, simply disappeared._

But...

He'd only fired once? That didn't seem right. You can't hit two people in slightly different places with one shot, as far as I know. Also, I remembered that no, the leader hadn't been the one to kill them. He hadn't held the gun, merely given the order to fire it.

I tried remembering more, but it wasn't worth it. I'd confirmed there'd only been one shot, and so what happened there didn't make any sense.

_It was a magical gun wielded by monsters that could put up force fields and hypnotize people. That detail shouldn't matter. What matters is remembering how those Devils died._

_I'd stepped out from behind the playground equipment._

_"Well, what are you going to do?" The leader spreads his arms wide and turns his head up in a gesture of defenselessness. "C'mon, I won't resist! I only just had your parents killed and probably need to kill you and your friend over there to keep you quiet!" As he mentions Irina, he turns his wrist and points at where she is still sitting, unmoving._

_I register what he says and begin running, not toward him, but away. I don't want to die, and at this time I'm not sure what I'm thinking or even if I am at all. They don't follow me, and I realize why when I'm suddenly slammed back to the ground. I'd collided with something!_

_I see it now. The red filter that made the outside world look the way it did, and the lines seemingly drawn into the ground. We'd passed through it, and even noticed the transition, and now we're trapped!_

_And that's when something else happens, and if I was thinking at all before, I'm certainly not now. Now it's all instinct, and I truly become just a witness. Thinking comes later._

_I turn back to face the group of strangers. No, Devils. That's what they are, I don't know how but I know it sounds right. I don't just turn, I begin running. Slowly, then with incredible speed._

** _("Boost!")_ **

_That's not my voice. I don't feel my throat move, and if I did it would burn from sounding so low and gravelly yet powerful at the same time. How!?_

_Never mind, I won't get an answer anyway. I raise my left fist again towards the leader as I run, and for a brief moment I feel as if I'm going to break apart. Somewhere my inner anger and grief manage to push something out of me, or into me, I'm not sure yet._

** _("Balance Breaker!")_ **

_Instinct tells me this shouldn't be possible, even considering everything so far. Whatever this voice calls "Balance Breaker" sounds extremely dangerous, especially for my body (can I still say myself since I've become so removed from my own body?). I might die, and I have no idea why any of this is happening!_

_I don't see or feel it, but I can sense it. Somehow, the Devils that killed my parents have ceased to exist, and it seems so have I..._

And after that there's still nothing. It seems I really did black out.

No, it felt more like disintegration than losing consciousness. And what had been that voice?

That voice was power. The power that destroyed me and took my place, and then gave me back. That was how I'd killed them - I hadn't, and it had. And I'd felt it since. It was the thing that wanted to destroy and indulge. An animal, so much more and so much less than human. It might also be how I remembered who died first.

I opened my eyes, not realizing they'd been shut. I gasped a little and almost fell over as I realized that all of a sudden I was standing. I reached out a hand to steady myself against the wall and realized that I was holding something in my left hand. I opened it to see what was in there, and this time I think I really did fall over.

In my hand was the drawing of the leader Devil, now shredded to oblivion and the little pieces drifting and falling to the floor. The pistol remained pressed between two fingers, ripped from the drawing's two-dimensional hands.


	4. Act I: Time is Relative

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MORE more things. Spoilers: supernatural stuff.

That night was perhaps more than a little hectic. Yasaka's work friends were definitely very loud, and best suited for a restaurant setting. However, obviously that didn't happen, and so we were all called to the dining room. Considering how many of her colleagues there were (I counted at least a dozen, but gave up trying to count them all when they started moving around), this probably wasn't going to work. But there are some traditions you don't sidestep, as I think Yasaka might've told me once. And this fell under that category. Oddly enough, she seemed to have not only enough space but enough tables and chairs to accommodate, and the loaves she'd been baking earlier were passed around. I remembered them seeming to be a little more appetizing the first time.

I tried paying attention to the conversation Yasaka had, and it didn't take long before I was understanding some of what they were talking about. Some of it seemed like gibberish and words I couldn't understand, which was a bit frustrating, but there was still more than plenty I could understand perfectly. Everyone seemed to talk about mundane things like their favorite restaurants and books they'd read, which they could've talked about anywhere else, but there seemed to be a sense of urgency, like a war council. Was this just how adult conversation was? At most I could get some badly explained summaries of what sounded like interesting literature, or what an aunt's husband had started doing in his free time that she didn't like.

"Hey," I muttered to Kunou, who sat next to me. She looked out of her element, and seemed to have already transcended mere boredom. And she wasn't wearing that ridiculous costume anymore, thankfully. I wondered how she'd be able to hear me over the sound of Yasaka's friends, but she must have, because she turned her head quickly.

"What?"

"Are you bored too?" She nodded. I lost track of where I was going with this or what I was going to say, and just trailed off. After another few moments she poked me in the arm. I didn't respond. She poked me again. I turned and she smiled arrogantly.

"You can't do anything, haha!" She smiled and poked me again, chanting that phrase over and over again while laughing. What had started out probably as curiosity had become taunting. First she'd wanted to know what I was going to say, now she wanted to see how I'd react with enough pestering. Yasaka had warned me about giving her exactly what she wanted by reacting, but sometimes it was tempting. A third poke to the arm, which I tried and failed to brush away, and she flashed another smug grin that briefly stirred that same desire to get up and give her a reaction. But then she died down and returned to trying to eat.

Without a good conversation to focus on, and with Kunou next to me and proven anxious to get on my nerves, I started looking inward without realizing it. Less than an hour ago I'd woken up without ever falling asleep to realize I'd shredded at least one drawing of a demon.

_ **Correction: DEVIL** _

I'd looked around to find I'd shredded all the other Devils too, and it seemed coincidental that they were ripped in such a way that all their limbs fell off. Had I known the word at the time, I would've called it meticulous. But I didn't, so I had to settle for "precise". And I'd done it without realizing I'd even picked them up. That kinda scared me. Of course, sleepwalking is the idea of being physically awake while still being mentally asleep, but I doubt sleepwalking involves metaphorical torture.

Had I done it before? I don't think so, to this day. My memory may have been absolutely horrendous but that had little to nothing to do with unconsciously doing things, almost like habits. Those things are _aided_ by memory, which would mean I couldn't develop unconscious habits without a fair deal of work. More importantly, what else could I do, now that it's happened once? Would it happen twice? Three times? A number perhaps more reasonable but less easily-counted?

And out of nowhere, it seemed, a color flashed in my face, or perhaps just in my head. No, this has nothing to do with the drawings, but somehow I didn't need to know this might be about Devils. The color I saw (or imagined, more likely) was red, but a deep shade unlike any I'd ever seen before. Blood, but... not? Maybe. Not a symbol of death, but a symbol of life, and to me at least, live_liness. To be alive and revel and indulge enemy kill victory dominate soar conquer battle deflower destroy ally fortify power rejoice **all is my- -!**_

* * *

_A gunshot, or a slamming noise. And I sink, or tip._

* * *

And I open my eyes to find the infinite overlapping conversations had stopped, and the lights were now angled to stab into my eyes in the negative shapes of heads. Those head-shapes were shadows. Made by real heads of real people, who were now staring down at me. Why?

The back of my head throbbed, but most of the impact had been taken while I was still distracted.

My breath was shallow, and my eyes stung. Not just stung, they _burned_. Why?

"Issei?" Yasaka asked calmly, and I could hear more than a little fear towards the end. And I focused, and saw she was standing over my right side, blond hair falling oddly and obscuring a bit more of that harsh light.

I wiped my eyes, and inhaled through my nostrils, calling back a lot of snot that didn't belong. Was I crying?

I got to my feet in a somewhat swift manner, and suddenly threw myself onto Yasaka and clung there. I felt the warmth in my eyes seem to leak out. Yes, I was crying. She wrapped herself around me, right there on the floor of the dining room.

"I think we'll have to finish this some other time, everyone, if you don't mind." The message was short and vague but the implication was concrete. There were a few scattered mutterings of acknowledgement, and everyone obeyed. Even Kunou, who went and found herself a corner and stayed there, busying herself with what I'm pretty sure was a toy box, although I wasn't looking.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You... One of the guests slammed their hand down on the table. I saw you jump out of your chair and tip backwards." Upon hearing this I started sobbing into her chest. I think I heard her sobbing too, a little.

"I heard it... Just now..." I muttered, a tear falling under my lip and into my mouth. "The gunshot..." At this Yasaka squeezed me tighter, and in the moment I felt safe. Strangely enough, it just now occurred to me that Yasaka cared for me. One of the many things you don't stop to think about until you do. She'd cared for me all this time, taking me in when I was young and had no one else to go to. More importantly, right here and now, she was the thing keeping me safe.

"Do you need some time alone, Issei?" she asked while beginning to stroke my hair. Stupid question. I was alone most of the time anyway, but perhaps I just needed it now most of all. I nodded, and that was the official order to go somewhere quiet and calm down. At home that would be in my bedroom. That sounded like an amazing idea, and so I went. I hugged Yasaka one last time, and had an urge to say "thank you" to her before leaving. I can't remember if I did or not.

* * *

I headed into my room and disregarded everything, simply choosing to fall on my bed and wait for sleep. I also blew my nose and wiped my eyes. At some later time Yasaka would teach me something about how warm water and a rag would help with the tears, but exactly what that has to do with the younger me trying and failing to simply pass out still needs some thought.

* * *

* * *

** _I'm flying, just like I was promised. Soaring over everything, towering above all else and rivaled by none! This is true power and the most solitary of majesties! Wings at my sides, the sky behind me, the ground below and nothing above!_ **

** _It's night this time: Stars and moon. A grey breeze provides a good current, and it provides ever the slightest nudge in my direction: favorable winds! Oh, how I've missed you!_ **

** _Beneath me, trees. I don't bother trying to name them. I probably could if I wanted to, but that would be a waste of time that could be spent rejoicing! Make every second count!_ **

** _I look down at the wonder of the ordinary world beneath me. There are some clouds, but to me they're transparent, and of no importance. Beneath them, I see birds, and houses and people and their pets. Some would see progress, others would see pollution, but what I see is perfect unity; a world held together by some mysterious force that has no name and shouldn't exist at all. Either that or I'm just happy to see things through my own eyes - you make your choice._ **

** _I want to scream and whoop and holler and announce my grand return, but there's no point announcing my safe arrival if I'm discovered. For now I'll have to simply relish these comforts on my own. Although later there'll be much rejoicing, and you know what that means!_ **

** _And that's when I see the house. Is this where I came from? I don't know and until time comes to put me away, I don't care. I pass by it without further notice._ **

** _I think I might even see the whole of Earth during my flight. The ruins of some countries, the prospering of others; people laughing, sleeping, rejoicing; all spread out below like maps of themselves. A lot had happened in just a few years. Although some would argue that a little time is all you need._ **

** _Even stranger than seeing the whole of the world I'd returned to, is who calls me. A voice, bouncing around inside me, saying nothing but garbled gibberish. I hate it when she does that. The message had no words but the knowledge it carried was received immediately._ **

** _A bunch of Devils. How nice. I hate those things._ **

** _Time to destroy!_ **

** _I swoop down, ready for battle, each and every Devil I see already marked for death, and oh, they will pay dearly, oh, will they pay! I will not waste a second of this glorious battle!_ **

** _But..._ **

** _Something stops me. I don't like being stopped._ **

** _I can't get to them. No, not yet! Begging and bargaining are beneath me, but I have a job to do now! Let me finish it!_ **

** _New message. Another time._ **

** _I've just gotten free! Not now! We do this now! I am a destroyer, I destroy! Don't take that away from me! I'll do anything, just let me have this freedom! I deserve this! LET ME HAVE THIS VENGEANCE! YOU PROMISED!_ **

** _But to no avail. The colorful night sky zooms, blurs and dissolves before me, taking me backwards. I'm not flying; in fact I doubt I'm even still here. Back we go, and no amount of kicking and screaming will ever let me get away. I'm already gone._ **

** _Fine. But you let me take it slow next time, or you can wish for all the godly power in the world, and it'll do not a thing._ **

* * *

* * *

I didn't wake up in the middle of the night. I slept in, and stranger still, I simply snapped open my eyes and was instantly aware that I was awake. No jarring jet-lag-like transition out of a nightmare, no screaming, no hypothermic sweating. Just... waking up. That concerned me, and had I chosen not to repress as I had, scared me.

I got up quickly, not paying attention to my surroundings. I was hungry. Yasaka was in the kitchen, still in her pajamas. The kitchen and dining room looked as if they could've never held a third of her work friends, and showed no sign they were ever there. Better not to ask about it. She herself was in pajamas, eating what appeared to be a bowl of cereal at the kitchen table. She saw me and smiled in what seemed to be some vague kind of congratulation.

"What day is it today?" I asked at a low volume. My own voice sounded weak, and itself still half-asleep.

"Friday," she answered casually. Had yesterday been Thursday? Probably.

"What time is it?" I added, not understanding what I was thinking until I said it. I might've meant to ask what year it was, as a joke.

"About ten in the morning."

"Shouldn't I be at school right now?" She shrugged, and played with her spoon in the bowl.

"Why would you be?" I think I gave her a curious, puzzled look. "School's cancelled."

"Is that really?" She shrugged.

"It's not like it was something you'd miss anyway, right?" Now it was my turn to shrug. Now she grinned. "Admit it, ya wanted outta there from the moment ya stepped in!" She did a poor impersonation in some accent I couldn't recognize, and for a moment I forgot to stifle a giggle. New Jersey gangster, maybe? Now I moved farther into the kitchen and made myself a bowl of cereal. Then I sat down beside Yasaka.

"Why was it cancelled? School, I mean."

Another shrug. "They didn't say, it was just a kind of random thing. 'Hey, we called to inform you that school has been cancelled for today'. No given cause, almost like someone just told them to cancel it." Her head was bobbing from side to side now, as it did when she repeated what someone else would've said.

"And why'd anyone do something like that," I wondered and took my first bite. Another shrug, and given enough time I'd understand the implication. But for now I just enjoyed this day, and understanding would come later.

"So, now that we have all this _time to ourselves_, what do you want to do today, Issei?" Yasaka asked. I didn't have a response ready, just finished my cereal. Then I think I might've finally let loose the ultimate catch-all response: "No idea." And that was that.

"We'll figure something out, no worries. After all, we might as well have all the time in the world!" She began playing with her spoon again and shoveled another few bites of cereal into her mouth.

"That makes no sense," I commented.

She gave me a puzzled look. "Why?"

"All the world has the same time." It made more sense when I thought about it, but it came out vague, like a filter. Of course, gravity distorts spacetime. A watch at the top of a skyscraper moves at a different speed than a watch at the bottom. Mere thousandths of milleseconds, but it's still there. "Never mind," I shrugged, and smiled a bit, incapable of knowing Yasaka understood exactly what I meant.

"What about having someone come over?" That was never really a possibility I'd thought about, but suddenly I thought of all the people I wanted over. Give it another moment, and that high number was actually... Not that high. Just one.

"Ophis?" She smiled. If I remembered right, she'd said that she liked Ophis. "And what about Kunou?"

"Oh, Kunou's already out of the house and gone." I made it a point to slightly exaggerate a sigh as I heard this. I don't know exactly what Yasaka was thinking at that moment. That happened a lot, I realize now.

* * *

A bit later I was eating lunch when the doorbell rang. It startled me. I hadn't really heard the doorbell before. Everyone knocked or the door was already open.

"Issei, can you get that? That might be Ophis!" I didn't wonder when Yasaka had called Ophis, or how. She didn't share that kind of information with anybody, which should've told me something. But it didn't, because right now she was probably at the door and I was just now learning about that she had arrived. After a moment, I realized she meant the front door, and jogged from my side of the house to the other before stopping at the knob. I heard knocking now, and that was a sure sign that Ophis was getting impatient fast. Strange, the habits and behaviors people learn. I opened the door wide and Ophis stepped through.

"Mornin'," she said as she stepped through.

I nodded, then paused. "It's afternoon."

She shrugged. "Time's relative," she commented. _(Hadn't I been thinking that too?)_

"So..." I had no idea what we were going to do now. She was here, and aside from talk, we didn't do too much together. "What do you want to do?" Another shrug. Two kids with no idea what to do, it seemed. Great combination for spending a chunk of time together.

"Well, I'm here to see you, so let's see where this fine beast resides," she quipped, pointing to me. Then she saluted and grinned slightly. "Take me to the Bridge, Captain!" It took me a moment but I realized she meant my room. Strange request, and not a bad place to start.

But...

The shredded Devils were still scattered about the floor and in some cases tacked to the walls. I didn't want her to see that.

_But argue and she'll want to see it even more. Just get it over with._

I led her reluctantly to my room, trying to conceal any desire for her not to be there. She didn't seem to notice._ Good._ Why? No clue.

The door opened and there they were. I was hoping for a brief moment that by some chance I'd forgotten that all of them had been thrown in the trash, or in a drawer. It wasn't uncommon, especially not for me, to forget something, even something like that. But when I looked in the room that I slept in I saw that the opposite was true: there were more bits of them everywhere than I'd remembered. Had I done it again? I could've and not remembered _that_. Ophis gasped a bit.

"Holy..." she trailed off, but I'd heard her complete the phrase countless times before. She stared at the scraps of paper lying on the floor, and seemed to avoid those tacked to the walls with the needles going straight through foreheads, between ribs and around joints. If she saw those there'd be no hiding it.

"I didn't expect you to me be this messy. I imagined something a bit... straighter." I sighed out of relief. She hadn't noticed. I saw her eyes briefly dart to the wall, but they stayed mostly on the floor. I saw her look at my bed and she turned back and gave me a look I'd never seen before. A joking smirk, but... something more. But the look alone made me smile. It looked like it indicated something funny. A couple more years and I would've smiled for a different reason entirely, and I'm certain even most kids my age would've understood already. Twelve is when the innocence will soon be long gone.

Then she began to step towards me, and back outside the room.

"I've seen all I needed to see, now let's go do something else!" I nodded, and she left first. At a time when I was certain she wasn't looking, I peered back inside, and saw that I'd probably exaggerated the whole thing. It wasn't that bad. I followed her back out of the hallway and into the kitchen. I thought I heard her say something about being a bit hungry herself.

I saw her already pulling food from the pantry and setting it out on the table. Yasaka greeted her with a smile and an introduction like a long-lost friend.

"Ophis! I was wondering when you'd show up!"

"Yeah, me too," she quipped back. "Awww, you missed me, didn't you?"

Yasaka was quick, shaking her head and smiling dismissively. "Actually, no. We were wondering how long you'd be staying, because we'll be throwing a going-away party once you leave. Because you'll be gone!" Ophis grinned, and for the briefest of moments I started thinking of one of those barroom brawls from the old movies, where people exchange threatening remarks, trade a few blows and suddenly everybody's knocking over tables and yelling like spectators, all while the piano player or whatever musician never leaves his seat and just keeps on playing.

But instead they hugged each other wholeheartedly, which I should've realized was strange, because not only did Yasaka know very little about Ophis, but because Ophis never touched _anyone_. Once, she told me, when she was nine, a boy that she'd explained probably had a crush on her had tried walking up behind her and getting her to jump out of startlement. The moment one finger touched her shoulder the sharpened pencil in her hand somehow found its way into the poor kid's forearm. "Needless to say," Ophis had commented, "that was a different school."

Now I was seeing Yasaka and Ophis act like they'd known each other their entire lives. I was getting closer to asking questions too...

* * *

The rest of the day I can't remember, just one of many days I happened to enjoy. As I think someone once said: "That was a great time, the summer of '71. I can't remember it, but I'll never forget it." And I think that's true enough. I don't remember if we went anywhere, the three of us, or if we just stayed right there in the house.

That night I do remember laying in bed, thinking about the day. I was glad Ophis was my friend, and was already missing her. Strange, how fast emotions can change. Annoyance, invisible sadness, fear, curiosity, love... All within the span of less than two days. Ophis had once asked me why I thought humans needed emotions. I had no idea, and I still don't. And she'd remark, at some point, how ironic it was to love being emotional, or to hate it. One of the things I think drew me to her was how she made you think, and she seemingly never stopped thinking.

Something else that I was remembering now. Not long after arriving at Yasaka's house, I'd asked her what "love" meant. I don't remember doing it, but sometimes when Yasaka came in at night and sat by my bed, she'd tell me about it, remarking how I would've been a great philosopher if I kept talking like that. And she answered something like "love is how you know someone matters, and they're important to you. It can be a husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, best friend, brother, sister, any and all of the above." By that definition, I loved her. Kunou, sometimes, but not often.

And I definitely loved Ophis.

** _(Give it a couple years and you can rejoice with_ _ her! Better yet, why don't you two just rejoice already!?)_ **

I blinked, startled. Who_ said that?_

I asked again, out loud, calling into the darkness of my bedroom. It had sounded like someone was speaking right next to me. Some monster, sitting just out of my view, patiently waiting until I fell asleep to kill me? _Probably,_ I thought. But at least they'd know that I knew they were there.

"Who said that?"


	5. Act I: A Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ISSEI DOES MORE THINGS. HOW EXCITING.

That night drifting off took a while, but after what felt like days I finally fell asleep...

* * *

* * *

_ **There's a little patch of rocky of ground below me, but I'm higher up and come nowhere close to grazing it. I no limit this time; I will not be stopped.** _

_ **I'm somewhere above the ocean now. I'm many miles from land, but miles aren't much of anything. I've never been one for anyone else's urgency, and this little sightseeing trip has done me much good. I must retain some control if I am to have my freedom. I will not be stopped again.** _

_ **The water blurs into nothingness, and I dip down, letting the stuff scratch my belly and mist around my wings. I open my mouth and howl wildly. This is tightly controlled - an unfettered bellow of mine would shake the earth!** _

_ **I am receiving my instructions now. A child. Find and protect. If possible, return them home. If not, tear their captors limb from limb. A certain boy I know well has been learning, with little bits of paper and his own rage, if indeed he understands what that is yet. That will serve him well, if he can survive long enough to tame - or release - it completely.** _

_ **Eventually, I see a splotch of land make its way into the dominating corners of my vision. Deep green trees, brown dirt and white-gray rocks. This is how all the world should be, were there no razing and rejoicing to be done. I must continue to make my way inland, where architecture expresses a desire to look anything more than vengeful, and in the process becomes sterile. But it is here that I can do my work. There are houses - not like the ones I can remember, but certainly capable of looking better with a bit of destruction thrown their way.** _

_ **I must continue to search for the child. Somewhere, and being held by a couple of Devils. Further inland, but close enough that they could be taunting the girl's mother. I want to find them and turn them inside-out, and then melt their bones to plasma on their flesh. Oh, that would make me very happy. But oh yes, the girl too. Her safety will come first. Even though I know my own arrogance, I must be cautious. Can't accidentally unleash even a thousandth of my might on her in passing, can we?** _

_ **I must slow down. I do so, and my eyes must peer out into the darkness in every direction. I do not take long to find them. She's with members of the same clan that I killed upon my initial arrival. I hate every one of them, child or not. They're in some alley; even I know this is extremely cliche. They have her held by both arms; she appears to be in immense pain. They don't care - no shame, no enjoyment, they just don't care. They see me long before I spot them in the darkness. I am half a mile away by ground and a whole mile above when I see them begin to pull out pistols of their own. They scratch red runes into the air, like the vehicular lights I have seen as I flew inward. They are harmless, but I am not the one they will harm.** _

_ **I hear them, too. Fluent English, anachronistic in its formality, and I am dissatisfied that they are not more afraid of me. "We have an intruder," one said in a hushed voice. Now is my time. I must act fast.** _

_ **I rush in, much like a bullet or a long blade, faster than a simple human - or Devil - eye can see. The wind tickles and freezes, and I will freely admit that my armor is not impenetrable, nor do I want it to be. I relish these times when the elements play with me.** _

_ **My eyes remain glued to the girl the whole time. She is young, not even an adolescent yet. The Devils around her share smirks, but not with any cruel act like rape or torture, but rather... victory. I am angrier than I have been this entire night, and I think some loss of control would be more than appropriate!** _

_ **Then I see why. I slam hard against air and bounce back. I barely manage to return to flight before hitting the ground hard. My legs dig a bit into the earth and then come up again. I beat wings with a little fury to stay upright, and challenge my attackers with a roar. I can see something thrumming against my bellows - a barrier! No barrier will keep me out! I will break through!** _

_ **I see the girl through the blur, and she is crying - she knows I will not get through. Or so she thinks. Given time, that is all. I swing back and narrow myself into a red sword, fully intent on piercing the barrier and rescuing the damsel in distress. Whatever God there is knows I have known it before, rejoicing to follow or not. I will bite my way through if I have to!** _

_ **I hit and bounce. Would anyone see me? Would anyone care? My self-appointed master, certainly, but who else? No one, I hope. I become even angrier now. I will NOT be denied! NEVER!** _

_ **I hit again. No luck. Inside, the girl's captors are simply watching with growing pity. I will not give them he satisfaction of watching their powers destroy me! I will take my own comment on biting their barrier to bits very seriously now! I fly a ways up and drop from above, jaws wide open. Fire settles on my tongue, and I unleash it like the full force of my holy fury!** _

_ **My fangs settle against the surface, and for a moment I think for a moment it will crack, and magic solids will be solid no more; waves toss these furious spikes aside and I begin to lose my balance. This is impossible. But so far nothing has worked. I do not believe I am wearing down the barrier at all. Quite the opposite, even. I tumble to the grayed stone ground and turn my head up. I clamp my vise-like jaws shut, and will not open them again. One eye sees the girl; she is crying. On either side, each with a hand triumphantly resting on each of her shoulders, are two Devils. They let her free to give me a mocking ovation.** _

_ **"Congratulations!" I hear one shout through the dome, and believe they have let up a crack in their defenses. I will not let them taunt me. I doubt I am worth their time, and they know it.** _

_ **Take me back, I tell my master. Let me roam like this no more! I have failed you, and I am powerless in this time, and I am...** _

* * *

* * *

...and it was uneasy and dreamless. I was practically blinking and awake again. But there was some sort of blankness in the first few moments, like I'd managed to forget in the blink of an eye who I was. I shook my head about a bit, and blinked a couple times. Things started to come back. And then all was normal again. Well, let's hope there was no school today. Unlikely, but one can hope. Beside, I still had no idea what exactly had allowed that to happen. Yet. I imagine you're smarter than me, and have already guessed that Yasaka was responsible.

I suddenly found myself thinking about Ophis. Not in any sexual way, as I had seen some other boys describe, where they fantasized about seeing girls in our class naked and rejoiced at every square inch of skin they exposed in real life. Just thinking. Just remembering things, like her many comments and quips about every little thing. She had once, in her usual way, depicted the acts to follow with a disgusting clarity, and even with every explanation I understood none of it and wanted even less to do with it. ("Just give it time," she had once told me.) I thought about Ophis as... something else entirely. Someone with some extreme connection to me, like the family fate had in store for all of us. Sensei had once told me about something like that, and he'd said, "that is the basis of love." Not that any of it made sense, and we both knew it, but now I thought I was starting to. She was my friend, and the thought of this all lingered in the back of my head for a long time.

In my own time, I got up. Ophis was still somewhere back there. I walked down the hall and into the kitchen, where Yasaka sat at the high table in the center, like a little patch of ground in the ocean. Her hands were laid flat against the stone surface and her eyes were closed. Blond hair fell at her back, and her lips were tightened with what I should've recognized as a grim and sorry attempt at a smile. My feet seemed to slap against the tiles as I moved into the room. I don't think she noticed; with time, I would realize that she most definitely did. But not this time.

I drew in a breath when I saw her lips part and words escape. The sound of it was airy, but it seemed simple enough, and it was extremely clear. "Good morning, Issei," she said. "School's been cancelled again." And then, it seemed like she'd never opened her mouth. And suddenly I was scared. I stood there for some stretch of time that felt more like stopping and standing in place than ever passing at all. After a few dozen moments, I went and made myself an extremely simple breakfast. It was gone before it seemed I could even blink. I can't remember if I even had blinked during the whole time I ate, but really, who keeps track of their blinking habits? There's a lot you don't keep track of: How many steps you take from one place to another, or where your thoughts take you in the middle of the night as you lie awake, or what day of the week it is, or even what week it is. Or why there's some heavy weight of silence in a house where at least three are supposed to live.

Yasaka had been sitting there the whole time, in a heavy meditative trance, like she was picking up some of Sensei's "extrareligious habits", as she had articulated it more than once. I'd heard "extra" used to mean both 'extreme' and 'outside of', making the meaning of this completely ambiguous to me. I stared outside the window to a garden outside, then to the forest beyond. I looked up and saw something that should've surprised me more: it appeared to be dusk outside. Or perhaps it was just that cloudy, I couldn't tell. And weren't days significantly shorter than at any other time of the year? Was it winter? For more than a brief moment I couldn't remember what year, what month, what season it was. Then I answered my question. It was some time in the spring. I accepted that as my whole answer.

After a little while, I went back to my room. I was almost through the door when I realized I had some image beginning to form in my mind. Something big, all-consuming, furious... and then it was gone. Scattered all over the floor were the shreds of the (winged dog) Devils, and for a moment I wondered how many of those I'd made and then destroyed. Then shrugged it off. I'd made a lot. And in all likelihood, there would be more.

And another image came to mind. No surprise, it was a book. In the back room. And I knew where it was this time: the hallway extending in the other direction from the kitchen, the connected dining room and living room (We had a living room?). I wanted to head back there. And somehow I knew that Yasaka would not think to stop me. Neither would Kunou be a problem, I somehow knew. And thinking about her, wherever she was at this time, I was suddenly aware of some distant feeling of shame. And somehow, that led me to thinking about Irina. _That was her name, right?_

Before I knew it, I was in the room, and it looked like it'd undergone some rearrangement since last time I'd been in here, several days (weeks? months?) ago. I couldn't even remember what it had looked like before - certainly something similar but not quite. Things were stacked and piled with some mess to it all, but on the top was the book I'd seen. I didn't question any of this. The book had some sort of blank white/beige hard cover, and I could see ink blotches making little polka dots on the pages from the side. I opened it and heard a little crackling sound, like tearing. But it held together. For now. The pages were extremely stiff, and I found myself thinking of the word "starchy" - in terms of their color of texture, I guess.

And they're empty. Completely. Nothing in them at all. I started at the first page and more than three-quarters through when I finally found something.

It was a dragon, completely red save little splotches of green and a streak of yellow. Like a traffic light. Its mouth was gaped open, and I couldn't tell if that was a flame or a tongue coming from its mouth. (That's me, you know.) Horns, tendrils, flared nostrils, and claws on its toes and the tips of its wings. Its scales glinted like some sort of armor, even through the dulled and browned pulp of the sheet it had been drawn on. Except.. it didn't look hand-drawn at all. More like it was simply laid on the paper and melted together. That was some artist.

Beneath that was a single word, completely illegible before I recognized it as another language. Welsh. "Dragon", it translated to.

_(Ddraig.)_

There was some illustration of power to it all that I would not question. Even now, I don't think I ever have.

* * *

I left not long after. I don't think I learned anything except some things about the dragon: that it was red, and it liked Wales. I headed back to my room after some indefinite period of time where nothing much happened. (Story of my life!)

I headed back to my room and immediately got out paper and pencil. I drew some new dragon: it was the purest, darkest black I could hope to find, with eyes the most startling red. Its featured were obscured by the darkness, but then I thought to add little tendrils of smoke, like some smoking demonic gun. "**DEATH**," I wrote underneath in jagged jot-writing, and underlined it several more times. I would not touch this picture again; instead I found a tack and stuck it to the wall, right next to the ripped paper gun that was its agent. It seemed purely like impulse at the time, but now I realize that I was getting symbolic, like any artist tries and often fails to be. Death was inescapable, could not be touched, could not be disturbed. It could only loom overhead, watching, vague and unknowable.

I stared at and found myself thinking that even a featureless black silhouette of a dragon was too unknowable. Besides, now that I had seen it upon completion it looked somewhat lackluster. I hadn't drawn much, and I would certainly do what I could to keep the hobby. It would serve me well in the future, but for now Death needed a more fitting body. None of us know what it looks like until it's upon us, but we can certainly give it some sense of unknowable fear - even a kid like me had that understanding.

So I started with a new idea for a silhouette. Legged, but the legs were clawed and looked like arms. And the arms themselves, they would be long and have no hands, only long spikes that drooped to the ground, more than twice the length of the legs. Its back would hunch nastily, and ingrown wings would jut like extra arms from around its shoulders. Its head would be on a long neck that hung forwards a ways, and would have no eyes or marks of any kind. I put a little tongue of smoke in the corner of its mouth, that same energetic blood color. This was one form it would take, and it would wait on street corners and back alleys, leaning a little in towards you with its massive tail legs propped forward for balance, jaw waggling ever so slightly.

I don't know how long I worked on it, but I knew by the end I was a little hungry. I tacked it up so that it covered up its dragon counterpart, then thought to rotate the paper pistol that it rested somewhere on its outstretched right arm. This was much better. This thing would kill and claim things, but I could imagine it taking no pleasure and finding no sadness in its job. It didn't know things like that. They were somewhat out of reach at all times, and it simply resolved to remain impartial as it took children's parents and eventually the parent's children, and their children, never taking joy but taking the rejoicers, even as they rejoiced. (That last thought struck me as funny, like some absurd image my mind wouldn't let me; later I'd understand and laugh grimly.)

But, I was finished, and I was hungry. I stepped outside. I saw the clock in the living room: it read some time around 4:36. This shocked me enough as it was, but it was the only clock in the house I could find that read that time. It seemed none of the rest were working - at least not correctly. The digital clock on the stovetop in the kitchen said it was 7:06, and I stared at it long enough to know it was likely fixed and would remain this way until 7:05 came around again.

Any which way, I'd taken much longer than I'd thought. I reached into the fridge to try and find a pan of whatever Yasaka had made the night her work-friends had come over. ('Had she seemed unnaturally authoritative when addressing them?' the back of my mind wondered absently.) There was exactly one rectangular pan of the stuff left; it was almost completely empty, save a little crumb where something large enough to be edible had once been.

"It's empty," I heard Yasaka call from the table. Had she never left? It looked a bit like it. She raised her head and turned it in my direction, and for a moment I saw something horrible there. I'd heard kids saying she was "hot" whatever that meant in context of their adolescent way of thinking - but in that moment it was much the opposite. She was tired, aged, somber, and all of this in a blank expression and reddened eyes.

"What is it?" I asked her suddenly. There was some curiosity to it that scared me, even as I said it. Real fear. Not simple worry about something, but that something had and would continue to happen, and that all one could do was wait to find out how bad it was.

Yasaka seemed to age ten or twenty years in that moment I saw her. How old was she, anyway?

And suddenly, I realized something. How silent was it in the house? Shouldn't there be something to fill the air? Yelling? Running? Laughing? Something annoying?

Like a young girl?

"Issei," she said, and inhaled and exhaled shakily. She sounded like the air was poisonous. "Issei, Kunou's been missing since last night."

How would you react when you heard something like that? Logically, you'd express concern, at the absolute least. With some, you might even see them grabbing flashlights and grabbing their dogs, and heading out into the woods, screaming the person's name above the birds and the crickets. With others, they'll find some authority, like the police, and have _them_ do something about it. And what I didn't know was that someone _was_ doing something, but that didn't change my reaction.

I just walked back to my room and went to bed, completely silent and devoid of expression. (What else is new?)

* * *

* * *

_ **I do not want to return; I have failed. But if I can, I will find her - I must! I have already sulked for far too long! I will make it up to you, I promise! No time wasted, no thought into decadence or sensation, just find her!** _

_ **Eventually, I do.** _

_ **I pass over some massive patch of forest (not quite a forest in itself, though) - vibrant examples of nature amidst the frustrating unimaginative order of civilization. Even the black of night, the green and brown of this patch cut through, very much alive. And somewhere in the center, some sacred place. There's a little gravel path, extremely narrow and cutting through the trees almost (only almost, mind you) unobstrusively. It leads from some empty paved road to a small clearing, big enough for a house made of opaque glass and grey stone and brick and metal. In front and behind are little flower beds, but all the flowers appear to have taken some sabbatical. What no child or unassuming adult would notice is how the loose planting dirt forms an...** _

_ **(NO!)** _

_ **...an ancient rune. "Fuck off, any and all malignant entities," it roughly translates to. Indeed, this is (surely not!) the place.** _

_ **Just outside this rune, I spot a swirl of smoke gathering, roughly the height of one of many men and lesser things I have gladly killed and gladly want to kill even now. But I must wait. I can identify them, and determine the severity of their death.** _

_ **Two men. No. Far less than that. Two Devils. The same ones from last night's search. One turns its slimy head and arm to wave at me, and holding out some disrespectful gesture with its finger. I care not for the gesture, but what this thug and its partner are holding.** _

_ **(Please don't let it be - )** _

_ **The other turns up and smiles. I cannot stand for this, and if that thing is indeed what I think it is, this will be deserving of the most horrible punishments I can possibly imagine! I fold myself and dive in, a terrible red blade of fury and fate, and I will tear their teeth from their heads and breathe fire down their shattered necks!** _

_ **But they drop it, and they are gone. Too late, again! I consider, with startling impartiality, that I am simply old. I vowed to never let myself survive into the age of degradation and decrepit weakness if I can help it!** _

_ **And the thing does move, just sits. I return to flight, head hung low. I have failed, again, and I believe this failure should be the last. Never let me out again, for I am aged and slow and dumb and useless...** _

* * *

I suddenly sprung up, knowing it was midnight. I wanted to get up. Something happened. So I did. Was I cold or burning to the point of melting?

I threw aside my covers with some haste, recognizing seemingly for the first time (even in the dark), that I didn't care much for the color. I thought little of it, just checked to make sure I was wearing an adequate amount of clothing. You know, I don't remember how long I kept that habit. The floor was cold and flat, like ice, but thankfully my feet stuck and my steps were sure.

I opened the door. It creaked, and for a moment I wondered how. I didn't think much of that, either.

Down the hall. Was there a light coming from somewhere? (At the end of the tunnel?) The walls seemed... sterile. Muted. Grays and whites, like steel and rock.

Was I looking for something? No, not looking. _Finding_.

As I entered the kitchen and dining room, I found myself wondering how everything seemed so NEW to me. It was a bit like I'd stopped and seen it before, but never realized what I was seeing.

I didn't question how I knew to go outside, only that I was protected for a ways. I stepped outside. The porchlight came on, yellow and merciless.

That's when I saw it. And I knew what was in it. At least, I expected it. _Is she dead_, I wondered thoughtlessly.

It was a brown burlap bag, and if it weren't so simple there'd be something cruel about it. It was big. Child-sized, and lumpy. That lump was a living thing. Was, anyway.

I walked towards it, one arm outstretched, ready to touch it.

"Are you..." I began. A lump caught in my throat and I couldn't finish. I swallowed. "Kunou?" No reply. She must be sleeping! People who took hostages always kept their hostages unharmed, didn't they? And to get what they wanted they kept them that way, right? Sometimes people don't want anything in return.

My hand made contact. The bag's material was extremely rough - a travesty - and very cold. It sank a little under my fingers. A dull buzz crawled up and down my spine.

It wasn't there but I could see it. A little curl of ruby-crimson smoke, hanging in the air like fine powder. Gunsmoke. Somewhere, some Devil was laughing with genuine amusement, a big grin on its face.

I didn't know I was screaming until Yasaka came outside. I think I was doing more than that, and I wish (and don't) that I could remember what that entailed.


	6. Act I: How I Bas Born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY THE STUFF COMES TO A HEAD

I don't remember the funeral. I doubt there even was one, although with my memory skills I doubt that counts for much. And I've never asked. Not once, not to anybody. It's just one of those things you don't tell or ask anyone lest it bring up painful memories.

But, emotionally at least, there was a funeral spanning several days. Just another word for 'day of mourning', but that's what a funeral's for, isn't it? The first day after... whatever it was, she stayed in her bedroom the whole time. Or at least I thought, because I didn't see her once that day. It wasn't just eerie, it was _wrong_. Mother figures turned to their children in times of crisis, didn't they? Maybe I was still some other adults' problem, but I'd sure hope not. In that case, I'd be no one's problem, wouldn't I? Not Yasaka's, not Ophis's, not Sensei's, not...

_Irina's, or my parents' problem. Absolutely no one. No source of comfort, reliance, or inner strength for anyone, that's me!_

That day I'd spent most of it wandering about in some kind of impatient daze. I think I cried a couple times: small, mute and pathetic displays, kind of like a tree falling in a forest where there's no one to hear the ear-ringing crash as it strikes things with a pronounced bang. I didn't feel agression, or anger, or even necessarily sadness. Just... that same emptiness that had always been there. There was something big, something essential; now there's no functionality, no purpose, no way anything can continue. Kunou was part of something big without anyone knowing it: the hammer in a pistol, let's say. When you lose someone, it's always impossible for anything to continue at all; and every time life smiles and throws you a few very enthusiastic fingers.

That night I dreamed complacently of snapping the necks of those who had killed her. Not like the vividity of the forest dream or the peculiarities of the flying dreams, but rather like a matter-of-fact observation. I traveled back in time to when they were to take her, and I was ready. They weren't. Kunou ran up to me and I hugged her, and we reached an understanding.

And then I was awake. It was the second day. Sensei came back, offered his condolences, and did what he could to comfort us. He tried to hug me, but I just backed away. He saw there was no point in trying, and I hated to do it, but there was some bitter authority to it that I reveled in for all the ten seconds it lasted. I heard him do a lot of talking with Yasaka in cautious tones, like exchanging advice. I heard a lot of it from my room. I wanted Ophis to come, oh how I wanted Ophis to come! She'd say "I respectfully ask to screw your opinion," or something like that, and see through my seeming cold and distant. But one can only hope, right? She never did.

That night I didn't do anything like cry myself to sleep - that would've been extremely cliche, even says the one with his emotions bouncing about between his skull. No, I preferred to just talk to myself - and to the unseen Ophis, commenting how no one really likes a grandiose late entrance. "But I'll take it," I said. "Sure, I'll take one. Be as late as you want, just show up at all if you can." Very dramatic and heartfelt stuff, y'see. I missed her, and didn't dream at all.

I woke up on the third day and somehow sensed things had changed. I didn't bother laying around - of course, I rarely did anyway - but almost immediately sprung straight up and went to join Sensei and Yasaka, who were already waiting. I was climbing into one of the high chairs at the kitchen table when Yasaka opened her mouth.

"We can't stay here," she declared. Nothing too weird about that. Of course, sometimes you have to ask.

"Why?"

"If we stay, something'll get us," Sensei replied. "It'll wait and in time it'll kill you where you stand. I've seen it," he added in an uncharacteristically wise way. "Do you know what that thing is?" Of course I did!

"A Devil?" He gave a sad smile and looked over at Yasaka. She remained almost as expressionless as me on a typical day.

"It's a Devil of sorts," he said. "But sometimes it's easier to externalize things and make them ridiculously distant than accept that they're inside you. It's the demon that is grief, and it'll kill us all if we're not careful." _(Good save right there.)_

And that made sense. And as a kid, it was something of an eye-opener, true or not. Not everything was some monster from the outside. Often the person you're most powerless against is yourself, right? And the only option would be to leave something behind or get dragged down in the process. I knew in that moment that I could hate it all I wanted, but Devils weren't all we have to worry about.

"I don't know where we'll be going, Issei, but it'll be away from here. If you want to be optimistic, you can call it a change of pace and a different lifestyle. But we can't stay, that's for certain. We'll be leaving sometime today or tomorrow, whichever you'd prefer - "

"Leave now," I said before she could ever even finish.

So we did.

And as you can expect, this leads to some major changes. I never saw that house again, and as the car pulled away, I saw what someone else - someone I can't remember - had said about how sterile it was, almost intruding on the green and brown of the world with its flat gray stone and glaring windows and too precisely square shape. It looked a bit like a cage, or a cell in a psych ward. As you can imagine, it probably had a bit of that in mind. I half-expected every other building we passed to look just like it, taunting me and my inability to escape it. But it didn't. It stayed. I've since found it was the most repulsive memory I have of that whole time. Sometimes I bother asking how it could be worse than Kunou's death, even.

* * *

We stopped somewhere by the ocean. There was a hotel there, or something like it. I couldn't help but think it looked somewhat new, like one of those museum souvenirs designed to look aged and worn for no other purpose than the illusion.

There was a little park nearby, with benches facing inward towards a little duck pond and some facing outward, towards a rock path and the ledge it skirted. No, that's a lie: there was a strip of grass, about six feet wide, separating travelers from the precarious danger they'd face.

I didn't want to stay in the hotel. I can confirm this because I honestly can't remember what it looked like outside of what I've already said. I spent most of the time outside by the park, and the traumatic irony was definitely lost on me. Most of the time one of the two kept track of me, and that's where I spent a lot of my time... just waiting. No idea for what.

My nights were all dreamless, and possibly sleepless, but none of it was worth remembering. I don't even remember how long we were there, just waiting. I could tell we were waiting for something.

Then there was something.

I got up that morning and went to get breakfast. Yasaka and Sensei were both nowhere to be seen. I shrugged it off, ate, and thought about how I could entertain myself today. No surprise, you can guess where I went.

I sat down at one of the benches I talked about, facing the ocean. It was a little rotted, but the paint was new, so it must still hold, right? There was something familiar about it, like seeing something from the other side. Fly over water, walk on land. Over time the water seemed to make its presence known, like it was afraid to talk before then. It roared and hissed against the rock. I should've noticed that there were no birds, yet I didn't. Of course I didn't. I never do.

Nor did I notice it when someone sat down next to me. I'll grant myself some leeway for that one, for reasons you can probably guess - what was there to hear?

"You're - " I jumped and gave a little squeal. I heard a familiar kind of "huh, look at that" chuckle.

"Ophis?" She nodded.

"I was going to say, 'you're certainly getting mopier every time I see you.' Which is completely true. Given, I understand why, but..."

"But what?"

"But it's still hard to see it. That's part of the reason I'm here right now. I would say 'sorry for your loss', offer my condolences and all that fancy crap, but I doubt either one of us is in the mood for that. So, just know I'm very sorry. For everything. There, I said it. Why are people always apologizing to each other when it comes to anything out of their control? Never makes sense."

I remained silent throughout all of this, bringing the corners of my mouth up in an awkward grimacing smile. Then I felt her poke me in the arm. Time to respond, stupid.

"You just contradicted yourself," I responded. "And I want to know exactly what you mean, so you can continue talking."

"I was hoping you'd say that. You'll find that a lot of what I'm going to say is likely to sound kinda batshit sane, so buckle up. But it'll be worth it, and with any luck you'll come out of this a better person with a better understanding of the world."

I nodded casually, and she continued. With a question.

"Do you think what happens to you is real?" I must've jerked back in startlement, because it sure looked and felt that way.

"What do you mean?"

"Your memories, your dreams, your interaction with the internal and external worlds as a whole. How much of it do you think actually happens?" It took me a bit shorter than I expected to realize I was already giving a response, almost rehearsed. I didn't think it was.

"My memories aren't perfect, and dreams are just dreams. All I really know is what isn't real." I heard her wince, and she delivered the bad news. But she continued with this.

"Let's say your memory's perfect. What would that tell you about what's happened - the good, the bad, the ugly? You and I both know the answer: your parents were killed before your very eyes, and you lost your best friend because _the power of Christ compelled her._ All of those things you've told me would have to be true, and things like those aren't grown out of. They can't be, and shouldn't be."

"Where are you going with this?"

"...Aaaand your dreams. The ones of flying, killing things, having overall a good time. Let's say those were real too. What would that tell you?" Not a rhetorical question.

"It'd mean... I do those things... when I think I'm asleep and dreaming..." She rocked her head from side to side in a "close enough" gesture.

"Close enough," she confirmed almost comically. "But... This is where things start getting messy. Let's move from what's real into... what's a bit more difficult to explain. How do you think those dreams would work, if you do these things while you're sleeping?"

I had to chew on that for a moment. Then I replied.

"I'd have to go somewhere between the time I would fall asleep and wake up again. Except... I don't ever see that." I find myself thinking now how malleable I was, and how that was no accident. This was only happening when it did _because_ I was malleable. This conversation in a new and strange place with a close friend following a extremely negatively life-changing event? I'm thinking about making a butter joke, but it keeps slipping away, ha-ha.

"Yeah. Here comes the bonkers stuff. What exactly _is_ a dream? Can you describe what a dream is for me, Issei?"

"It's... when you're asleep, and your mind wanders. Weird things happen." I spoke slowly, already sensing something cracking.

"But let's say it's not just your _mind_, or even just _your_ mind. Let's say... you're Doctor Jekyll, or some other character like that. When you dream, things get a bit hazy, and most of the time you're completely out of control, like someone else is driving this bus. Let's say pretty soon your feet are moving and someone else is doing all the walking for you. This other person is like a roommate in the apartment between your ears, or a wingman, or something like that. You get the day shift, they take night shift."

"Are you saying I am actually two people?" And then there was a grin.

"You betcha."

"And what does that tell me about anything?"

"A lot. You were six. You just saw your parents killed, and little lady-friend's in just as much danger as you are, or maybe more, depending on how you see it. You hear some voice that's not yours, you black out and when you wake up someone's saying you killed them. Repeat that back to me without context, if you please."

(_**"Balance**_** Breaker"?**)

And you can imagine she didn't stop. She just kept going.

"When they said you killed them all, they were as close to right as they could be. Also, have you ever wondered how a six-year-old didn't react horribly to finding out they just murdered a gaggle of demons to death?" Pause for an answer.

(_"From what Irina tells us, you used a power that might've killed you too."_)

"I did... something. It was dangerous, and it worked. I saved her." My eyes drifted down again, and I thought that Ophis wasn't there as I had needed her to be. She was talking, trying to explain something important, but some part of me felt that didn't matter. This was all getting somehow unbelievable, but not because it was difficult to comprehend. It was hard because I _wanted_ it to be real. All of it. And I also wanted Ophis to somehow act differently, but there was something so right to this that it felt incorrect.

"Yes, keep going," Ophis snapped me back out of my thoughts. "You were saying?" I guess I was getting a feel for what she was asking.

"I... It was something that I couldn't understand. Not even a part of me, in a way. It was something new."

A long pause.

"What do you think that was, Issei?"

"Something powerful, something... beyond?"

"Ancient, perhaps?" I nodded. "A Dragon, maybe?"

I gave her a blank look and tried to laugh critically. I couldn't.

* * *

"Now let me tell you a story of my own," she began. She rarely talked about her own life, and now I had the makings of a reason why. It didn't make for the best story. It was too vague to be a metaphor or to even be entertaining, and - at least you'd imagine - too alien to be true.

"I'd hoped to tell you later, but you know how _that_ always goes. No time like the present." She looked up at me and grinned in her smart-mouthed way, then her eyes drifted down. I followed them to the water. It looked a bit silvery. And the silver tongue began to wag.

"I wasn't born here; in fact, I don't think I was ever born at all. Everything was... empty. Monotone. Blank slate, whatever you want to call it. And it was _beautiful_. I'd known nothing else, but I doubt anyone cares what they don't know until they know it. I loved it there as I'd loved nothing else. I was alone. I was silent. I was boundless and infinite. I was free...

"...And then, one day... I find myself being ripped out. Hard. I did everything I could to hold on, even tried to make them stop, but I couldn't understand much of anything - not who they were, how they thought, why they were there or how I could stop them. And in the end, my blissful unawareness made me powerless to stop them, even with the potency I knew I possessed that was far greater than their own.

"And that's how I was born. I fell onto some sidewalk somewhere, tumbling end over end, and terrified of the world that _was_. So, what did I do, you may ask? I panicked. I got lost. I made mistakes... and then, I started realizing what I'd seen, and what I'd learned from it. I used that, and eventually learned to use what powers I possessed to change myself. I became a witness to this world, I guess you could say, and I learned how much I can wonder about you, as a whole and as individuals.

"Then I learned about Devils. Magic. Death. And so much more beyond what your imagination tells you is still somehow in your understanding. Well, whatever your imagination says, it's just trying to cover its own ass. And worst of all, I learned about Dragons.

"They were once great and powerful and abundant. I was one of them, maybe the first. And I couldn't accept that I could be the last. There are some out there still, and some who've lost themselves - literally. They've been dismembered and scattered among other living things, lying dormant and powerless. I learned this, and as you can imagine, this had me downright terrified. I may have learned humanity, but my own kind was dying. What was I to do?

"I found you, Issei. My best friend. And possibly our only hope. In more ways than one. Do you want to know why?"

It took me a moment to realize she was done monologuing, and I blinked. It was the thing that got my parents killed, nearly killed me, and killed our would-be killers to save my friend's life? Not even close, said the man with a lit match in hand.

"Why?" And she resumed.

"You have a Dragon in you too, and a powerful one." And the man smiled and dropped his dynamite. "It's active, and it's alive, and it's as obnoxious as guys come. I think you've met him before, in your own way. Ddraig?"

The Welsh Dragon. Not just any, but _the_ Welsh Dragon. It had killed, it had saved... and it had failed.

I got up and began to walk away. This wasn't right. I've said before it was so unsettling because of how right it sounded? At this point, it sounded impossible! Besides, why would I want anything to do with something like that!?

I'd forgotten where I was going, if there was anywhere at all. I guess not. But wherever I fell, it was in the grass. I was on my knees. I looked up.

It was a playground. The expansive equipment was colored in heavy red and purple. The dead air and Devil-distorted sky.

I started to cry, no shame anywhere in saying it. I remember sinking my head to the soft gravel in some sick imitation of yoga. I felt a hand on my back and wanted to run away. I didn't; in that moment, I likely would've said that I simply didn't care.

That same hand reached my head, and gently lifted it in a gesture that would've implied something maternal, but in this case was something more universal: the comfort of a friend.

I hugged Ophis tightly in that moment, sobbing shamelessly, and in those moments I also would have likely said I didn't care if she confessed everything she'd said was total bullshit. In fact, I can remember: that's _all_ I was thinking then. And what did she have to add on at the very end, to get me right there when and where I was most defenseless?

"I'm here for you now. We all are."

I just kept on sobbing into her shoulder. Eventually I got a hold of myself, and I'd stay in control for a long time.

"Was everything you said true?" I asked over her shoulder, still hugging to her as if we each expected the other to be carried away.

"All of it. I'm... sorry, the way we've had to do this." One last sniffle, and then my emotions were my own again. And I knew she wouldn't be lying.

"Tell me everything. And I'll promise not to yell at you to shut up."

She did. Yasaka was leader of an alliance of mythical creatures who were more like humans than any legend would have you believe. She herself was a nine-tailed fox, as was Kunou (well, not anymore, but...). Sensei was the Hindu God of Destruction, Shiva (he'd never lied about anything, had he?).

"I could even tell you about those neo-Satanists, like the 1983 Italy Massacre, except that's a completely different sack of steaming dump to fiddle around in," she'd added at some point. I'm still not sure what she meant.

Let's say that this is where the change became permanent. Things were no longer empty. I knew. And as you can imagine, now that meant I was destined to be thrown straight into the ring with the lions. As a Dragon: infinite, vengeful, and rejoicing.


	7. Act II: A Normal Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tonal shift, chapter length shift, hard cut several years forward.

Things only got worse from there. Or better, if you're one of those people that chooses to see it that way.

A lot happened over the next, say, four years. Yasaka took me to some other town called Kuoh: a displaced Japanese city where East met West, although these days the West tended to dominate. And in truth, it wasn't just Americans and Japanese, but something of a hub for everyone. In fact, I'll sum everything up something like this: there's people from everywhere. You'll find, very quickly, how convenient this is all is.

And now, after all this time, there's been a lot of learning, and training, and preparation. But, like before, there was some aspect of things passing with little incident of any sort. Regardless, I could say this was better - like the idea of total freedom for a caged animal who's known little else. Except, would that really be better, or so different that the animal's confused into not knowing what can be better? You could say there was confusion as things were uprooted and forced to settle again.

Until one day, that is. I'm going to lie, and tell you it started the next day, and this is one day before anything happened at all.

We lived just a mile or so out of town, at an absurdly spacious mansion of a house that was not just a house. It was, overall, something of a military complex, or its equivalent in the fantastical and mythical world. It even had its own sort of one-sided protection field, which had to remind me of... what was it again? Something murderous. Trespassers, maybe.

That's what was happening that day...

* * *

He - not he, but _it_ \- wore a dark brown trench coat and wore a plain white baseball cap. Around its head a little deep purple cloud was starting to form, and the back of its coat was ripping open. Black crow's wings had unfolded and the tattered materials they had torn away dropped to the grass. And it spoke in an annoyingly thin, slicing vibrato voice, like it was horribly congested. I hadn't heard it yet.

It stood, with its arms crossed, just inside the protection field, tapping a dew-stained loafer against the ground.

I saw it from my window on the third floor or so, and knew exactly what it was. An Angel, and not just any Angel, but a Fallen one. As far as I knew, he'd come alone, and was just another of many faceless ones that had expressed some interest in forming some kind of truce, or alliance, or something else that would be no truer in the end. He didn't move from his spot in the entire time I saw him, and no one appeared to make any kind of reactionary response. For now, he was harmless. But today was Monday, and while I can argue I'd gotten no better in four years in terms of education, it was a way to "get me out into the world", as Yasaka had put it.

I got dressed in the school uniform and stepped out of my door. The big door slammed behind me and to be perfectly honest, I wanted to jump. But I didn't. In front of me, two Youkai passed on their way to some other important thing. Their steps were almost, but not quite, in perfect sync. They turned their heads and nodded at me in total unison, though. I nodded back a little nervously, and once they passed all the way across the hall, I continued on my way. That meant taking about ten steps right out the door, turning left to head down two or three flights of stairs, and finally reaching ground level marked by some sprawling mosaic rug. From there, I continued left into the kitchen area, where I found Ophis of all people waiting for me, standing casually against the countertop. Distantly, I considered how attractive she was, and how human she was in every way while being nothing even close. At this point, you have to realize I'm sixteen years old - optimal age for many thoughts and actions to have found their place in anyone else a long time ago.

_"I'd bet you'd like to rejoice with her_," a little voice growled to me.

"Mornin', Mr. van Winkle," she told me. "I thought you'd sleep through the whole ensuing battle."

"Says the one I've never seen sleeping before. Any idea who he is?" I made my way to the table across the floor and sat down.

"_Quoth the Raven, nobody more_," she replied. "He's just another thug. Nobody important."

"I get that, but what is he? The third Fallen this month?"

"Fourth. We caught and skinned another at the New Kyoto headquarters two nights ago."

"Skinned? As in, you peeled his skin off?"

"Yeah, but it turns out he was a total masochist, and he enjoyed it more than I did." This inspired me to chuckle a bit, although I truly could not tell if she was joking about that or not.

"But," I began, walking over to the counter and considering what I'd have for breakfast today. "What'll we do with this one?"

"If he knows about the full extent of what goes on here we'll have do a lot worse than skin him. Especially if he knows about you."

_"I wouldn't mind making him eat his own stomach,"_ the same grunting voice commented. But I was trying to satisfy an appetite, and wasn't exactly in the mood for something so cruel. Although, really, how much does talk of viscera really affect your ability to eat a sandwich? And then I decided that that's what I'd have this morning: a peanut-and-butter sandwich.

"Why are we just letting him sit out there?" I had to ask as I pulled out the bread.

"He's not moving forward to attack and we have the fortifications to prevent him from running back the way he came. If he wants to get himself worked up, let him."

"But I'd like to make it to school on time today," I replied. I spread peanut butter - crunchy, always - and jelly, then laid one on top of the other.

"Consider it a warm-up, then," she said. "You mean walking, right?"

"Yup."

"Have fun with that," a new voice said. Shiva. Sensei, as I had known him. The Destroyer. He was dressed in one of his weird battle-dresses. He'd explained them before, something about magical armor, but it never failed to make me laugh. I doubt any writer of Hindu text had kept a straight face seeing it either, or if they'd conditioned themselves to be horribly intimidated in its presence. "He may be just another thug, but you see that purple aura around him?" I nodded.

"That's magic," he continued. "I'm not sure what kind it'd be yet - you'll have to see for yourself - but be careful when you go out."

"Be sure to wear a kilt and mink coat," Ophis elaborated in typical flat-toned Ophis style. "Oh, and carry a big bident with a big flaming marshmallow on each end. That'll be enough to scare 'em off."

"Will do," I said. "What time is it?"

"0652," Shiva told me. I picked up my sandwich from its plate. Then, realizing I wouldn't be able to eat it while handling that guy... right? I briefly picked up the plate, and set it back down. And then picked it back up again.

"Okay. Catch me up on any movements when I get back," I finalized, and began walking to the door. My backpack and books were waiting right by the door, exactly where I'd disregarded them. I shoved the sandwich into my mouth and the books into... wherever they go in a backpack. I zipped it up and slung it over my shoulder. I gave one last wave as I opened the door, stepped outside, and closed it again. Time to get going.

But first, this Angel needed to be housebroken, or whatever euphemism you want for it.

* * *

I stood just outside the house, and saw that a head tilted down and obscured by the cap was now coming up. Even from this distance, I saw that his face was extremely sharp-angled, and his eyes glowed an unholy red. Plenty I didn't like. I pulled the sandwich out my mouth and called out to him.

"You are trespassing in the territory of the Youkai Alliance! Turn back now or be obliterated!" And he whispered, and it seemed to bypass the air between us and bounce right into my ears. His voice really was quite slicing.

"Issei Hyoudou, holder of a Dragon's Sacred Gear?" He wasn't supposed to know that.

_"Now we will kill him just a bit more slowly for knowing. I think it might be more merciful than if he was strictly ignorant, but punishment is useless unless the lesson has time to be learned."_

"That would be correct," I replied at normal volume, slightly slower. "That is I." _Let him think he's won for just a bit longer._ I saw him grinning.

"I would like to convey a message from my superiors to the Dragon-holder," he explained. I saw him grinning smugly. "'We would like to suggest an alliance between Earthbound and Fallen Angels, and the Youkai Clan and all subsidiaries thereof." The purple aura around his head was seeming to solidify into something powdery.

"Oh, are you wondering about this thing?" He asked, pointing a white-gloved hand and spinning it around his head. "Simple protection magic. My purpose is to convey a message in person and return with your response. It'd be petty to kill the messenger, wouldn't it?"

"It would," I replied, and took a bite of the sandwich. I could already tell the aftertaste would warrant guzzling from one of the school fountains. I chewed a bit and swallowed. "It would be very petty."

I couldn't see it in his face - I've never been able to see much - but I was fairly certain he expected more of a reaction. He had gotten the drop on me, hadn't he? Yes, I believe he had. I hooked one thumb in the strap of my backpack and continued to stand there. Even if I was calmer than he'd expected, he still had power here.

"Would I be able to pass and be on my way, by any chance?" I asked him, back at yelling volume. "If you know who I am then you know that I have school." I began walking, and his wings suddenly slammed almost to the ground. All at once he was airborne, and spread his arms in a dominating gesture. I gazed at the ground where he had once stood - it was now black and dead where his heathen's wings had touched the grass and dirt.

"I may be just a messenger, but I'd think I'm able to bar you from going anywhere until I get an answer. As the holder of perhaps the most potential in all of the Youkai Alliance, you would represent them all." His smirk grew just a bit. I was just a kid with untapped cosmic power on his way to school, right? That no one was supposed to know about? Of course, no one knows what they don't know - that's the whole point of not knowing it, isn't it?

I grinned now, and took another swallow of sandwich. Time to break the illusion? Maybe.

_"I would like to rip his teeth from his skull, one at a time. Do you think he still has wisdom teeth? Speaking of which, why do Angels need teeth at all?"_

"That's a good question," I said aloud. His expression changed ever so slightly - couldn't tell what, but probably nothing bad.

"What did you say?" He called out, and his voice sounded more distant.

"Your explanation is total bullshit," I told him. "And I don't think I need another tardy. One more and that'll be two hours' detention." For emphasis, I took another bite from my sandwich - with my left hand. I felt a gathering fire and my hand being lost, falling asleep and then going numb. I unhooked my thumb from the strap of my backpack and grabbed the sandwich as my hand went slack. I could see something emerald beginning to paint the light, striking against the Fallen Angel's red and purple, and the barrier's dark orange. Soon it'd be like when you hold your hands over your eyes and when you open them up everything's a flat shade of blue.

"Do you see this?" I asked him, sticking my arm out to him, hand completely useless but glowing incredibly. All at once he smirk became a shudder. The shift was so comical I had to laugh a little. I had to think of one of those awkward New Japanese cartoons where the characters' eyes seem to double in size when they're surprised. "This is infinity, old and distant and totally omnipresent throughout all of creation." I gave my arm a little shake for emphasis, and my hand that was no longer mine wiggled freely, shifting the green light from one side of his horribly shocked face to the other.

"Y- Yu- You..." He began, and the purple cloud around him began to grow into some kind of shell, enveloping him in... something starting more and more to resemble a rock. It was beginning to lose definition, in the same way extremely black color distorts depth.

_"Make this slow, but not too slow."_

"I know," I replied. To both. I took another bite of my sandwich. It might've been extremely subtle adrenaline making me less concerned with taste, or maybe it truly was getting better with every bite, but I took my time chewing now, relishing the flavor. I chewed deliberately, in an extremely pronounced way.

For a brief moment, the green glow became an all-encompassing white blotch on reality itself, and all of a sudden I felt something inside suddenly turn itself inside-out. That would be the Welsh Dragon. If I remembered right, he would emerge not as a dragon, but as a knight in fiery red and orange armor. All very New Japanese, you understand, but this _is_ Kuoh we're talking about here. Two voices as one now shouted:

_"I am infinite I am a Dragon I am power incarnate I am your torturer!"_

Good thing my backpack and sandwich were still in hand when the change was over. Meanwhile, the armored body of the Welsh Dragon, bathed in his own emerald light, sized up the Fallen Angel in the purple cloud.

With our free left hand, we took two steps forward and suddenly lifted our body from the grass. We moved forward, sticking our free hand into the cloud and shoving it and its passenger against the fortified field. He could pass through easily, but we would let him do no such thing. We had him by the throat. Let his wings beat all they like, but he would not get anywhere. Especially not after what comes next.

_"The usual?"_ Ddraig asked me.

_"Not worth it. Just the teeth,"_ I responded. No condescending smirk is ever complete without a mouthful of teeth, is it?

_"Just the teeth," _we repeated as one. We dropped him to the ground, slamming him down headfirst. Dazed, he tried to flap his wings, but our hand wrenched his mouth open and stayed there. Our pointer finger found the farthest-back teeth of his mouth: the ultimately-useless wisdom teeth. He was screaming hilariously now, and our hand reduced the sound to a pitiful little whisper. A twitch of the finger as it hooks around the tooth, and the Angel's scream managed to reach our ears with any weight to it at all.

We couldn't really feel it - or at least not me - but blood was beginning to pool in his mouth. He thrashed wildly, and we thought we saw tears in his eyes. Not only was he far too human for his own Angelic good, but he couldn't stand the _pain_ of it all. That protective aura was meant for something weaker than us, and while he could have known of us there was no way of knowing how much we've started to work together. Ddraig and Issei, combined into one for a time after years of training. Even if we had not shown this to him, we could not risk letting him live, especially not for trespassing. One less of the legions that could follow.

We continued the process until all of his strangely human teeth had been ripped from his skull, and still with only our one hand - the other held the sandwich, and the backpack still was slung over our shoulders - we continued to hold him down. Blood flooded his mouth as he screamed numbly with a crushed tongue, and still he found strength to try and struggle. We let him. We'd been at this for only two minutes or so, and had a decent amount of time. The purple field around him eventually sparked out, however the magic had worked.

Eventually he tired himself out, and went still. Ddraig left us, and I returned to myself. I checked to see if I still had my backpack on my back and my unfinished sandwich in hand. Looking at the maimed and lifeless body of the messenger Angel, I took another bite of the sandwich. It tasted amazing! I gave a wave back to everyone in the mansion, and picked up walking right past the thing. They'd finish him off, but I guess we just weren't in the mood to do it ourselves after all. His fallen baseball cap - completely white - still rested in the grass, to mark where he had stood and fallen.

The protective field opened itself up just enough to permit a sixteen-year-old boy passage into the outside world. And the boy in question started up a broken stone path, down a hill to meet with the road and its sidewalk, and eventually to pass the city limits and join the town itself as Issei Hyoudou, a somewhat awkward kid who probably had a learning deficiency of some unspecified sort. This boy also had a carefree skip and hop in his step.

* * *

* * *

I was within a block of the school when I found the two others: normal (if not excessively perverse, even for their age) boys in Kuoh Academy uniform. Motohama and Matsuda were their names, and just like me, they ended up outside the cliques that were the norm. They were religiously lecherous, antisocial (not asocial, but likely _true_ antisocial), and most importantly, they were my friends. They were standing a safe distance away from the more popular cliques in front of the front doorway, but close enough that they could still get a good view. I had to smile a little sadly when I saw it. They didn't care, they were going to do what their hormones told them to. I saw them and picked up my pace, my vision unknowingly narrowing a fair bit.

And that's when I collided with someone. It was a hard collision, and I think I heard screaming. I couldn't tell what or who I'd hit, or how hard, but it was hard enough to send both of us sprawling. My hands came out in front of me and made contact with the very edge of the curb, providing just enough support to prevent something of a knock to the head. Another six inches or so and I'd be in optimal position to be run over by any passing car. I grunted and got to my feet, brushing myself off absentmindedly and looking around with a bit more attention into seeing who I'd so carelessly let myself collide with. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this.

It was a girl, about my age, and I was quick to notice she was dressed like some sort of nun. 'Peasant' was actually the first word that came to mind, but that was the last I'd ever think of it like that, once I learned how to look anywhere else but her clothes. She was my age, and that meant I can't say what my standards were, but my eyes went up to her face - she was _beautiful_. That's the only word that could really encapsulate any part of it. That's what she was.

She was also hopelessly embarrassed - and rightly so - that the long skirt of her dress had been pulled up somehow during the fall, and no amount of even more modest dress would ever have hidden what was now wide-open for the world to see. I took a long while to see it, and by that time the stunned girl was screaming. Regaining myself a bit, I immediately jerked my head away, shielding my eyes and wondering horribly if I'd ever want to unsee that exposed bit of flesh and undergarment. I also screamed a bit too, before remembering how little communicating screaming did:

_"I'm sorry I'm really sorry I didn't mean to - !"_

Then, something kind of wonderful happened. In perfect alignment with who everyone in Kuoh must've thought me to be, I managed to trip over my own feet stepping away, and falling hard onto my back. Thankfully, I'd again missed the curb, but it certainly hurt a fair bit. I might've even blacked out for the briefest of moments from the impact. That's not the strange and wonderful part of it.

"It's okay," an unnaturally fluid voice soothed. This girl, whoever she was, was now laying a hand on my shoulder. Something about it was... draining. But nothing good was going. Only the pain seemed distant, and some of the embarrassment with it. It was a comforting gesture.

"I'm sorry," I repeated, and I opened eyes I hadn't realized had closed. I was expecting some light from somewhere to stab at my eyeballs, but there was none. Instead, something looming overhead, shielding me from anything that could've done so. Hair fell loosely, distorting the shape.

"And I forgive you," she added in a high, kind of unnaturally youthful voice. I quickly made the decision to get up, slowly, with some pain that seemed far away enough not to worry about at all. Her hand stayed there on my arm the whole time, like she'd gotten to her own feet in a single unbroken fluid motion. Good thing too, because for a moment dizziness overtook me and my body made the executive decision that it wanted to stay on the sidewalk. This girl must've seen this coming somehow, and knew to steady me for a moment, applying just enough force to keep me upright. My hands went out wildly at first, and then relaxed.

It took me another moment to realize she'd turned so we could look each other in the face. I blushed nervously, but couldn't really bring myself to look away. Open green eyes, a definitely-formal but somehow also completely-sincere smile, and free-flowing blond hair with a length that was impossible to gauge.

"Sorry," I repeated like an idiot, starting to grin shamefully.

"_I tell you, not seven times but seventy-times-seven_," she recited. "I've already forgiven you. Besides, it was my own clumsiness that caused this whole mess," she told me, speaking slowly and seeming to emphasize that she believed every word of what she was saying. In a world where almost all mythologies are right, it's hard to dismiss any one of them, but I recognized it, and something about it didn't sit right with me. But both I and the dragon in me agreed it was better to say nothing about it and skip straight to the introductions.

"I'm Issei," I blurted out, and the burning sensation was starting to die just a bit.

"I am Asia Argento," the girl replied, taking her hand from my shoulder and extending it for an extremely formal handshake. That feeling of bad things being drained away receded with such ferocity I didn't even bother to see if her hand was glowing or not. I grimaced a little without meaning to, then took her hand. She initiated a quick up-down and quickly let go again.

"It's very nice to meet you, Asia Argento," I responded in that typical cliche way. I pointed my arm straight out to the school less than a block away. "This is where I'll be headed in the future, if you'd like to run into me again," was what I'd tried to say. I didn't hear it, only saw her smiling that mandatory smile of hers and nodding once or twice.

"I will keep that in mind," she told me. "It's been very nice meeting you too, Issei." And then all at once she was walking away, her hair and long skirts waving a little. Behind her, I got a horribly uncomfortable feeling that was now becoming noticeable. The sinking in the pit of my stomach, the fire in my face, the lead in my legs... and between them! I looked down stupidly, with a goofy image of having burst through my pants starting to etch itself into my retinas, right next to the _delicate flesh of her exposed thighs._ Was I sick? I understood how these things worked, obviously, but I don't think it's ever been phrased quite like I was phrasing it.

_You would like to rejoice with her, too, wouldn't you?_

* * *

"Hey, Ise!" Motohama shouted. For reference, he's the wirier of the two, with thick glasses and something of a critical frown where a mouth should've been. He'd know exactly what I was thinking about, wouldn't he? I finished making my way over to him.

"We just saw you wipe out right into some babe," Matsuda added, giggling in a way I knew to be just short of malice. He was the slightly more athletic one, and the least-liked photographer in all of Kuoh. "Half the students out here were looking in that direction!"

"They were?" I asked redundantly. I knew they probably were. Still, both boys nodded.

"I'm jealous. How was the view?" Motohama asked me.

"Not that great," I lied. "I didn't see much of anything, actually, I just kinda fell and she helped me up."

"You - !" Motohama started to shout at me. He did a quick double-take, as if trying to hide his expression for a moment. He turned back around to face me, and the accusatory energy he was emanating died off. He relaxed. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"Yup," I replied. "But," I added. "That's the closest any of us have gotten to a girl, isn't it?"

"Probably," Martsuda responded, grinning. "You wanna hear some good news?" Motohama was grinning too. It was probably some new injection of "art" into pornographic imagery that they seemed to like so much. 'Glow-in-the-dark paint fights between twelve naked young women' was possibly the most ridiculous of those they'd told me about... and then taken the time to show me. What baffled me was how they expected to believe that it'd be so easy in the real world. They never said it outright, but their words had never meant otherwise. Or maybe I was being overly critical, or perhaps hypocritical, even.

"Okay," I agreed, hoping just to get it over with. "What is it?" They were giggling madly now, and Matsuda leaned in close to whisper in my left ear.

"I got it!" He squeaked. "The newest volume of Young-'uns and Dragons!" That was actually pretty tame for him, but he was quite a devout fan. Basically, it's an Internet show where teenage girls dress up as mythological creatures and role-play through various stories that often had a sexual undertone. I wasn't impressed and mostly just disturbed, but these two had their own way of seeing it.

"That's..." I started, drifting off. He wouldn't care for it much if I told him I wasn't impressed, but he wouldn't be paying the closest attention, either. Neither would Motohama. "That's certainly good news," I finished flatly. They returned to their talking, and I decided it'd be best not to talk to them right now. Was it because of Asia Argento? Possibly. Probably. I might've just not been in the mood for their antics, even, despite how I'd become so associated with it in the past school years. I walked through the front doors and immediately began trying to navigate the labyrinth that was Kuoh Academy's high school sector.

I had to think about Asia Argento again. How could I not? But it wasn't of her that I'd seen. I wasn't attracted to her chest, but instead I had to think about what hung of it. A silver crucifix, no surprise for someone who dressed vaguely like a nun and recited Biblical passages, but I'd seen it somewhere before. Somewhere incredibly distant, where I had to think that it tied this new girl to a very old memory of someone doubtless very different.

_("Pul-lease! Tremble before the infinite awesomeness!")_

I passed from one class with little incident, and not unlike many other times, I barely registered being there at all. I stayed at my corner seat during some math class, gazing off into the distance, and trying and failing not to catch myself not gazing at some of the female students in front me. Next came some science class, where I was learning the specifics of how predators and prey maintain a steady system. After that, I managed to daydream through an entire literature class without being caught; maybe I had been and no one had bothered enough to try and call me out for it. I was thinking about being a fierce Dragon, and her being... whatever it was she felt like. It changes more often than it stays the same.

After that was a study hall period, during which I took my turn putting my own markings on the desk I'd sat down at randomly. Among previous doodles were a hopelessly unattractive penis drawn in red marker, a phone number jotted down in scratchy pencil and marked "for emergencies ONLY", a broken heart with an illegible initial on each side, and an empty dream: "I swear that redhead wants mine!" As for me, I was happy just drawing a sad little stick-figure with a pitchfork in one hand and a harp in the other. Then, for purposes of bad artistic irony, a drew a shriveled bat wing on the harp side, and a feathery bird wing on the pitchfork side. I even took time to prescribe my initials underneath in a way that a doctor could say wasn't useful at all.

When study hall let out, next came lunch. For some logistical reason it consisted of several mini-periods on a rotation, and I had no one to sit by. Not that I minded. If I really wanted, I could dine in some great hall with nigh-immortal creatures of legend, who knew my real story and who I knew personally. But instead I guess I was content at the far end of a long cafeteria table, a safe distance from anyone who I could know or easily guess didn't like my being too close to them. Let them keep their distance, I told myself when it started to bother me. I was in the first rotation, and ate quickly, not worried about chatting or picking subpar food apart to see what made it subpar. I headed quickly to the courtyard, where I found a crowd of students that could really remind you what a Nexus this town was. Sometimes Ddraig would give a little ramble about how it both disappointed and excited him. But on a (seemingly) normal day like today, he didn't comment much on it. Surprisingly, we were good together but I could guess it was more by necessity than anything.

I'd walk over by the tennis courts, as I did today, and briefly watch some of the more athletic girls showing themselves off in intense matches. Passively, I could comment how futile this was, and sometimes Ddraig would agree, and we both could agree that I couldn't stop contradicting myself in that way.

_"If you're to think about it, then just do it. Rejoice if you want to, kill if you want to, fly alone, just do it in the end. No battle was won by consideration."_

And he was right. Before I could tell who took notice I was walking away, and couldn't really find a good place to sit down. I could roam for a time without even pretending to do something, couldn't I?

I thought about Irina Shidou, and Asia Argento. Where would either one be? I imaged one was either dead or still on the run, and the other... closer, but still somehow farther away. What had Asia looked like as a child? What would Irina look like today? Absurdly, I wondered if some plot twist in the future wouldn't have me find out they were one and the same. No, I quickly countered. That was a twist worthy of one of Motohama's or Matsuda's shows about scantily-clad cults. 'The plot thickens: The Murderers of the Light and the Werewolves of Bangladesh are just the same group of people during different phases of the MOOOOOOON!' Besides, what I'd seen of Asia was nothing like Irina, or at least that's what I could gather. She was new; Irina was old.

I don't think I could even think much during that time. I can scarcely remember the rest of the school day at all: two class periods I couldn't remember, and a conversation as students clambered to escape. Obviously, it involved two people: Motohama and Matsuda, the two-man lechery act.

"Y'know, I'm more a Koneko guy myself," I overheard Motohama saying. No surprise, it was about some girls. But, I guess, it could be called progress, seeing as how it was an actual human being and all that? Or would that be worse? The Koneko in question was a freshman, yet somehow never looked even that old. And then I reached the conclusion that yes, that was worse.

"Why!?" Matsuda responded. "She's just a little thing, barely ye-high with no dimension to her at all! Why not Akeno or Rias or... one of them? Just someone with some _depth _and _height_ and _length_, that's always better than just looking like a kid. What're you, twelve? Go big or go home!"

"Bigger is NOT always better, idiot!" Motohama shouted back. "Hey, Issei, explain to this man what a treasure our school's mascot is."

"Ehhh, I don't know about that," I said. "Maybe he's got a point, or maybe neither of you is making any sense whatsoever, I can't really say yet."

_"GODDAMMIT ISSEI!"_ Motohama roared. "Make up your mind already!"

"Yeah, I think I'm actually with this idiot on that one," Matsuda added.

"That was the point," I explained. "Or maybe it was just an excuse not to take sides here, or maybe I happen to agree with both of you, who knows anymore?"

"And certainly neither of us. See ya tomorrow, Ise! Don't get any babes without us!" And with that Motohama went his way to do... whatever it was he did.

"Yeah, see ya," Matsuda agreed. He flashed a quick wave and did the same.

That left me free to walk home, back to the real world.

* * *

* * *

I walked back through the little patch of forest and started up the hill, thinking about how only a few hours before, an Angel had stood there. I could've killed him myself, and probably should have, but had lost interest just when I needed it the most. He'd undergone serious dental surgery, though, and I guess that must've been satisfactory. Someone else - Youkai or other - had probably finished the job already. I stopped where he had dropped his hat, and picked it up. I'd carry it inside and see who'd dispose of it.

Yasaka was waiting for me, practically just inside the door. She gave me the traditional hug and kiss on the cheek, and I had to admit, in that hypocritical way again, that I didn't mind it too much.

"How was school today, Issei?"

"Nothing special," I lied. There was plenty about it that was special. That, and tomorrow all Heaven and Hell would begin to break loose. Not that many of us knew that, not even myself. In fact, barely anyone knew that.

"Too bad," she responded, and released me from her embrace. I set my backpack down exactly where I'd set it that morning, right by the door.

"Is Shiva home?"

"No, he's currently examining troops and destroying stuff, or at least that's what he says."

"Do we have any news to report on the Alliance? What's the status on the werewolves?"

"We're still in the process of taming one, with hopes that it'll influence more to join us willingly. Somehow, I doubt that, though."

"And these... Children of Gaia? The crazy ones?"

"Ring of Gaia. We've tried. There's no talking to them, but at least both we and our enemies can agree that they'll be stopped wherever we encounter them."

"So, in other words, nothing special for you, either?" She smiled, and went back to whatever it was she'd been doing beforehand. Meanwhile, I decided it'd be a good time to find Ophis. Typically, when not going out in the world to do who-knows-what, she moped around here and just wait for someone to mess with. And I still had the Angel's cap in hand.

I made my way up the first flight of stairs and looked down the corridor. Half-immersed in shadow, she was leaned against the wall and reading some kind of book.

"How was school today?"

"I wouldn't know," was my reply. "All numbers and talk of things that _don't concern me_."

"Sounds fun." She still just stood there, somehow managing to make text out in the darkness. Not that that should've surprised me at all.

"And, uhm..." Now I thought it important to ask.

"Yes, my little mortal friend?"

"I..." Should I tell her? Probably. So I did. "I met someone today."

"Oh? I'm guessing it's just your typical 'ooh, new person' love at first sight?" I had to take a moment to register the way my heart was starting to hammer in my chest. I was just talking about here! I drew in a deep breath and exhaled with a bit more emphasis than should ever be considered normal. I started to crumple a little.

"Is it okay if we sit down?"

"Sure," was her reply. So we did. I collapsed onto my hands and knees and wormed my way against the wall across from Ophis. She slid down too, hands clasped in a really Ophis-like critical way that somehow was never purely critical. "You ready to talk yet? Or do I have to break you first?"

"I think I'm ready."

"So talk." I whistled out another shuddering breath.

"I ran into her on my way to school today. You know me, it was pretty embarrassing. And... her dress got thrown up and I saw more than I probably should have," I told her, starting to grin and laugh nervously. "And... she just shrugged it off like it was no big deal. There was something... really fascinating, like something just out of reach that I felt I should've recognized, but there was no way I could." She nodded essentially the whole time.

"Go on," she ordered. So I did.

"I couldn't stop thinking about her for most of the day - not about her body, although I did some of that too - but who she was, and how I felt some... connection of some sort." After a moment of silence, I was confirmed to have stopped talking. Little of what I'd said had come out how it needed to, hence someone like Ophis who could listen and pick apart and understand.

"I think," she began, "that you're getting a late onset of middle-school crushes." Joke? I'd had my first crush when I was nine, although you could probably guess I'd always thought little of it. Maybe... Or maybe it really was just a joke.

"_Or_," she continued, "you've just seen another Dragon."

"What?"

"Issei, when you were twelve, and you'd just lost Kunou, what all did I say to you?" Not much, in all. I still remembered how I'd supposedly had to fester like an old wound, with radio silence from my closest and perhaps only friend for days with no idea what to do. Obviously, I said none of this. She was happy to fill that in, too.

"'_They were once great and powerful and abundant.'_ And now... I'd said they were scattered and dismembered by the cosmos itself, and clinging on to other life in order to survive. Humans are repulsive, sure, but they're also the top candidates for host. One of the abilities you have, as what we will call Our Chosen One, is to see what's what. Is it possible that skill is finally emerging?"

"Maybe," I replied, accepting the answer. Of course, I hadn't mentioned her little trick of draining the pain away - in fact, I hadn't even remembered it, it had been such a subtle and minor thing. "And..." I had to add, "what does that mean?"

"_Rejoice,"_ Ddraig said. _"Our world may soon be dead, but species develop ways of keeping themselves alive. Not the individuals, but the strong members of a group. In your emerging age, you should recognize this as your chance."_

As if she'd heard him - and probably had - Ophis nodded, an ironically smug grin that I would have liked to remove from anyone else's face starting to spring up from her mouth.

* * *

I still had the matter of the hat to take care of. I decided that since I hadn't worked it up to kill him, I would, at the very least, dispose of his hat personally. It was at this time that I realized I'd broken my promise to think of him only as "it" long ago. I couldn't very well get personal with my victims, could I?

After finishing my talk with Ophis, I kept the hat it hand for a while, studying it. Was there a particular reason it had been pure white? Symbolism, perhaps? Or was it his own identifying mark, like a Biblical callsign? Probably the second. His superiors would very likely guess that he was dead, and if they knew about me this would only reinforce their suspicions, but he'd seen me himself, and that meant he'd had to die. Or perhaps reduced to babbling children's rhymes in a damp corner, but even for us that would be cruel.

I kept it with me until that night, when I got the dinner I'd promised at lunch. Great hall, plenty of other people, the works. Yasaka, who was still trying to improve her own cooking skills (which were, in retrospect, never the best), served up some exotic meats I couldn't readily recognize in some style I couldn't recognize. I made a big gesture of smacking my forehead when Ophis said "these are some good fajitas!" I should've recognized the traditional vegetables and grill-marks among the meats, and while it might've been some other similar dish, I could never unsee it as fajitas.

And, fulfilling that fantasy even further, I again managed to catch myself thinking about Ophis. She'd explained once that her form was always malleable, and I'd seen so from time to time, but there seemed to be some gravitation that transcended appearance. A cynic or anyone with a decent understanding of the subject would call it love. But, of course, love is extremely broad, isn't it?

The hat hung from a peg on the back of my chair, and I'd decided to destroy it after dinner. As soon as I was finished, and after listening to one of Shiva's stories of his exploits with some other mythological creatures, I dismissed myself to figure out how I was to do it. I figured something out.

I went out in front of the house, where the Angel himself (itself) had stood, and it had been hauled away from. The protective dome still shrouded the entire house from human eyes, and you could always just walk in, but not out, without permission.

"Ready to do this?"

_"Yes."_ I held the hat in my left hand, and suddenly felt it grow distant again, like it was no longer my limb. Technically, it wasn't. It was a Dragon's hand. And in it rested a plain white baseball cap, perfectly sterile save a couple small grass- and dirt-stains.

_(White like...)_

And suddenly, again, I found myself thinking about Asia Argento. Her long skirt had been thrown up when she fell, and I'd seen more than just leg. No wonder she'd been so embarrassed, I only managed to realize now.

I didn't want to unsee what I'd seen. I also found myself wondering what would have to happen for her clean white panties to get grass and dirt stains on them. It was sick, but just this morning I'd ripped out an Angel's teeth and enjoyed a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, so who knows what's sick with me?

I turned my mind back to the hand that was no longer mine, and the hat in it. Ddraig was coming out to play, and it may have been something minor, but I knew he wouldn't mind.

_"Burn!" _And the hat did. We felt our hand clench around the hat with the grip of a vise, and as we opened our mouth fire leapt off our tongue, spitting into our palm and reducing the hat to ash. We knew we must be careful, for any more than necessary would claim this entire field.

Ddraig left, and I returned, the warm ash remains of the hat cupped in my hand. I turned my hand to let it drain out onto the grass, and all at once its remains were lost to the dirt. I wouldn't mind heading back inside and going to bed. So I did.

While I was in bed, I found myself staring out the window, trying deliriously to see if I could find Asia Argento out there, somewhere under the stars and moon. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want her, or if I said I never wanted to see her again. But I didn't just want to _want_ her, and there was something that felt wrong about what Ophis and Ddraig had both said. I couldn't just take her, I knew that, and I didn't want to. If you wanted a knight's perspective, I wanted to _earn_ her.

And I wanted to see Irina again.

That's when I realized. If she was still alive, there was little doubt that she was a collaborator of the Angels, given that she and her family had been targeted all those years ago. I might've even killed someone she knew. If I wanted to look even deeper, Asia might even have known that Angel; might even know Irina.

Sleep that night was uneasy, but tomorrow would be worse. Much, much worse.


	8. Act II: The Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Issei is approached by a certain evil hottie.

I woke up early the next morning, and exchanged a few words with Yasaka and Shiva before heading out for the day. I got to school at about 0743, and felt a bit more motivated to engage with them. Once again, there was nothing to them but sharing intimacies about themselves that probably should've been kept _to themselves._

"Last night the only thing I could think of was Koneko-chan!" Motohama told us in a state of complete ecstasy, even adding the Japanese honorific for effect. "I swear, it was like she was _right there on top of me_!"

"Are you ever going to shut up about that! Keep talking like that you'll be arrested for things that may not even be illegal until you're an adult! Hell, they might be going through your computer right now!" That was, of course, Matsuda. He knew he was no better, but also thought of his own tastes as much more mature and healthy. As you can guess, that's not the point. "Me, if they find anything they won't go see who they have to drag out of school and throw in prison, they'll sit down at my computer and watch it with me! I'll even let them!" At this point, his voice was a raspy, frustrated squeal, making a hilarious situation even more so. And of course, they turned to me to try and figure this one out.

"Issei," Matsuda added. "Explain to our friend here why his tastes are disgusting. He seems to have forgotten."

"I think it's funny how after all this time this is still what starts arguments between you two," I told them, trying and failing to stifle some giggles. They didn't find it very funny. I decided to elaborate. "You two appear completely unable to accept that you get turned on by different things, and so you try to force it on one another. And that doesn't work," I told them. "Either shut up about sex and find something different to argue about, or accept that." I think they both actually considered for a moment. It was a long moment at that.

"Issei, my friend," Matsuda began, clapping his hand to my shoulder in that dramatic way he did. "I think, at this point, there will be _no_ shutting up about my exquisite tastes and so, by process of elimination, I've decided to make up with this monkey over here," he said, pointing to Motohama. He looked like he was grimacing.

"I've reached the same conclusion," Motohama agreed, and held out his own hand. "He's right. We've argued about this for too long. Besides, I think we can both agree on some things. For example, Ri-..." He stopped himself, and corrected. "_She_ happens to have a great shape to her." Matsuda was smirking.

"I knew you'd've come around some time ago!" That was good. Hopefully this truce would last a week or so.

"Now, y'see?" I told them. "That's how friends work out thei-..." A couple girls nearby were squealing, and I couldn't finish the remark. Obviously not the repulsed kind of squeal, so we all knew what it was. Some guy named Kiba Yuuto, who happened to be something of a subject for female fantasies that made Matsuda's and Motohama's seem like childhood memories of picnics and the like.

I thought I heard a few moans and "I want him for a sleepover!" Then I heard "Minus the actual sleeping!" "Sleep with me, Kiba!" "Why bother with sleep, I want him fully awake!" "I've heard he's a great swordsman!" "Stab me!" "As many places as you want!" I doubt this was any one person, but multiple girls bouncing ideas off one another. A horrible and absurd image formed of all of them piling on Kiba in a massive tackling orgy. I thought I heard a quote from "Romeo and Juliet". Even Shakespeare must've known how ridiculous that sounded.

"I don't like him," Matsuda said, and keeping this in mind, his voice sounded a bit more disgusted.

"Only people who have a chance with someone like that happen to like them," Motohama explained, trying to sound as cynical as possible. He did. But, judging by the sheer number of girls that we saw surrounding him, we could tell not all of them met that criteria. Even weirder, he didn't mind any of this, merely kept a friendly smile and did what he could to acknowledge whoever got close. His verbal replies were completely inaudible. I briefly wondered if he was a sociopath. Probably not.

"Not like you had much of a chance with any of those that're into him," I added.

"While that may be true, that's no excuse!" Matsuda told me, and made something of a display of waving his fists at the guy as he strolled into the school, followed loosely by his female admirers. In his last moments, he might've even thrown the finger.

"That does nothing," I tried telling him, but the bell rang, and we all went our separate ways for the day. And as I've told you before, things happened.

* * *

I was back in math class when I was summoned. I'd been trying not to think too much about the girls in front of me, but suddenly found myself unable when I saw that one of the girls' skirts had been hiked up just a bit as she'd sat down, and from the position she sat in it was easy enough to see. She didn't appear to notice, but I had, and had to think _Wow, was that what Asia's thighs had looked like? And the simple dress must've hidden plenty as well. How prominent would her chest be in, say, a Kuoh uniform?_

And then there I was, thinking about Asia in that way I think only teenage boys can think. Seventy-seven-times-seven? I could go for that.

And my mind drifted a bit farther, past sex and into violence. I was torturing the Angel messenger again, but this time I didn't lose my appetite for it. I didn't go for his mouth, instead opting to examine his feathery crow-wings. Ironically, I remembered to keep the sandwich in my right hand. I didn't bother with realism, just planted my feet in his stomach, and first plucked one of them off, then the other. There was a generous amount of blood, and with a full dental set he opened wide to scream. I let him, and soon turned to his other wing when I heard a voice...

_"Stop!" A girl cries. I turn. I can't tell who it is, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that she's witnessing what has to be a horror, especially for her._

_"I cannot forgive you for this!" She screams, and reaches forward, a silver crucifix dangling from her fingers. There's tears in her eyes._

_"That's right," the messenger Angel beneath me manages to cough out. "Hurting us is seventy-seven-times-eight. No-go for launch!" And, all of a sudden, he sits up, passing completely through my feet, my legs, my whole body. And then he's towering over me, as if his form grows when solidifying. He throws his trench coat aside, revealing a silver-plated skeleton underneath. "Can't take it back now, I'm dead!"_

_He reaches down and scoops the girl up with one bony hand, briefly passing through to avoid crushing her. She remains fixed, pointing the crucifix accusingly at me. I can tell it's heavy; I'm feeling it weigh down on my whole body just looking at it._

_"Issei?" The Angel calls out, spitting his teeth out at me as he does. His skin's disappearing, becoming a grinning skull. His teeth float to the ground around me as feathers. The girl in his left hand speaks with him as one voice._

_"Issei Hyoudou?" They repeat it again. But the voice is much more present._

_The Angel -_

_\- _kicked me. Not very hard, just enough to get my attention; in fact, it was barely even a nudge. With all the consciousness and sobriety of a dreaming drunk, I brought my head up. I should've heard the accompanying squealing and puzzled whispering that wasn't even a whisper, but I didn't.

Remember that guy from earlier? That Kiba fellow? He was standing over my desk, blocking the overhanging light and reducing him to a half-solid shadow.

"That is you, isn't it? Issei Hyoudou, sophomore, first period in Room 24B?" The shadow spoke. I nodded slowly, barely registering any of it but getting most of it. "Good. I'm Kiba Yuuto, and I have a form excusing you from this class for an Occult Research Club event."

That, as you might remember, is where Kiba and the rest of them held their important meetings under a sardonic pretense. Obviously, I wasn't a part of that, and in my still-half-asleep state I didn't make the connection.

"You did join last night, didn't you?" And then it dawned on me. I nodded, going along with it. Absently, I wondered how Kiba's fangirls would take that news. Not well. I heard a few horrified groans.

"Then get up, and let's get going," he told me, nudging me with his shoe again for good measure. I gathered what I needed to and got going, following this guy down hallways that had always seemed spiteful because of how they never seemed to stay in place. And all at once we were out of the building, not bothering with the absolutely destroyed stone path but instead cutting right through the grass to reach the Old Building. As the name would have you guess, this was where classes had once been held, and where one group of Devils coordinated amongst themselves. It was far more run-down on the outside than I thought it should be, with crawling ivy, shattered windows and crumbling red-brown brick. But I doubted it was anything like that on the inside. It wasn't.

We entered through a reasonably plain white door, which no one was waiting behind, and did not shut on its own. Or, at least, I didn't give it the chance; I shut the door behind me, and it was almost completely silent.

This part of the building also looked run-down, but mostly just empty, with unpainted walls and no furniture whatsoever. We didn't focus on it much, and instead ascended a flight of stairs that were much the same. The second floor is where the fun started.

Carpeted floor, intricate paintings on the wall; Ophis would call it "the whole shebang" or something like that. He opened a door on our right and motioned for me to enter. His face appeared completely blank, as if ready to take on any expression if so ordered. Sociopath indeed. I nodded mechanically and entered.

_"Trap."_ It wasn't a question.

* * *

And I realized how obvious it must've been, even to _her_. It was meant to be that way: no missing that they could kill me if they wanted. How much would they know, exactly? Whatever it was, let them believe it.

She sat on the opposite side of a big oak table placed in almost the exact center of the room. There was one of those old-style lamps with the bottle-green shade off to one side, giving her a very faint glow. And, of course, she sat in such a way that her breasts practically sat on the table. That told me quite a lot. I pulled up a chair and sat down, trying to give the impression that I wanted neither to emphasize nor ignore what I was seeing. But, of course, there was always something else to look at with Rias Gremory, and she knew this better than perhaps anyone. She spoke first. Even the voice was hard not to gawk at, if you can picture that. If you know anything about voices, then she was a controlled contralto.

"Good morning," she began, casually, but I could still somehow sense the complete control to it. Better to stay silent and let her continue. She did.

"I assume you know who I am?" Now I figured it was time to respond.

"I'd be worried if I didn't." That was too direct, probably. Would she say something I didn't know? "But let's say I didn't. Who are you?"

Stay away from the eyes, the hair, and if possible, stay FAR away from the chest, I told myself. Doubtless, Rias knew that was what they all said. Or at least the ones who pretended they still had a conscience while she was in the room. The eyes were a horribly pure blue, the hair was an extremely saturated red, athletic frame, pale skin, and - completing any ensemble - the definitive shapes of the bazonkazonks under a form-fitting Kuoh uniform shirt. Too perfect to be human? At that point in time, the answer was most definitely yes. And then she introduced herself.

"Well," she began, leaning towards me a bit more and laying her head on crossed arms, "I'm Rias Gremory, President of the Occult Research Club, and descendant of the House of Gremory." Demonic, obviously. Somehow I'd managed to forget that, and had to remind myself to be scolded later for it. If I had my way she'd die, and soon. But somehow I thought she'd want to see what else her killer would do, should that day come. Would she grin as they did it, like she was grinning at me now, full of seduction and lust that she could sway any boy alive with? That defiance certainly gave her some sense of insane authority.

"And who are you to me?" She concluded. I should probably answer truthfully, shouldn't I?

"Issei Hyoudou, student of Kuoh Academy and closet pervert."

"Living weapon of the Youkai Alliance and Enemy to All Else?" Oddly specific title, but she hit the nail on the head, and with her I doubt it was just a nail. But still, how could she know this?

But then again, how could she not?

"Issei, I understand your reluctance," she told me. "We Devils aren't exactly your favorite people in the world, are we?" That was a lie. The argument could always be made that they weren't people at all. Still, I chose my favorite option and let her continue talking. Hopefully she wouldn't mind if I drank the view in. Maybe she was expecting me to try not to. Or did she predict what I'd predict? Did the lusting glances ever bother her at all? Devils don't get bothered by sin, do they?

"I'd like to put all prejudices aside this one time, at least." She raised herself up to a more formal position and tugged on her collar, then dropped her hands to the desk, one on top of the other. Would she be wearing a bra under there or not? I thought I saw...

"Focus," she reminded me, daring me to keep looking. And she kept going. "I'd like your help in destroying a mutual enemy." What would happen if I tried escaping right now? As-of-yet unknown magic and a couple of Devils would stop me, wouldn't they? She continued. "They're a rival demonic clan, operating within this school. You were probably aware of that, but probably not, too. Help me destroy them, and that'll be a whole group of Devils that no longer exist. I imagine you'd like that very much."

What convinced her that any of what she said or did would work? She had presence, and knowledge of simple truths like what to use it for, but anyone who knew that would see through the intention, wouldn't they?

Right?

Apparently not.

You'll see that this was an obvious regression for me, and an instance where I was wholly unprepared for what I'd supposedly spent all this time preparing for. Damn, she was hot!

"And," she added, "there's a bit more I'll throw in there." I could see she was smiling, and my body knew before I did what would likely follow; my stomach was a block of cement and my heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest. I was already trying futilely to ready myself if she made some blatantly sexual gesture to catch and hold my attention.

"No, I'm not offering you sex beyond your wildest dreams, although I doubt you'd mind that." She leaned in again, never moving her gaze. She was smiling, almost in a friendly way. "I have something almost equal to offer."

"And what exactly would that be?" I responded, trying not to lean back or give the impression of being unsettled. It wasn't really working, and it wasn't hard to guess we both knew it. How was I going to handle myself here? And why didn't I take the risk and kill every single one of them? Was I actually invested in this? Her eyes were absolutely startling, and I've never been one for reading eyes, but there was a coldness to them, that together with the smile told me she'd strip naked and stab me repeatedly in between tantalizing gestures. Was she born that way, or was it a demonic social norm?

And of course, when she told me, it had to be whispered:

"These Devils are the ones who killed them."

* * *

It took me longer than I wanted it to, and when I understood I was confused. That had to be false. I'd killed them. All of them. Irina's parents had said so. Of course, I was pretty sure they were in league with those Angel's I didn't care much for, so who knows? They could always lie.

"The Devils that killed your family when you were young. I know how you did it." That had to be false, too. Or else I'm really the worst-kept secret in Kuoh, and beyond! No choice now but to try and lie, right? Lie and mean it? She said she knew how I did... _what?_

"But I don't. I don't even know what it is I did." And it all came apart. I'd contradicted myself, and I knew that now. I was also hopelessly unprepared for Rias Gremory, as already established. Was I really that much of an idiot!? I'm practically a sitting duck here, flailing my cuts about for the sharks to smell!

Rias' smile grew even bigger.

"Of course not. But let me say what would happen if they were still out there: you'd be able to get the revenge on their clan." She timed her sentences, I realized, inserting a pause to let it sink in like I was some dimwit who couldn't keep up!

"They're a rival clan that's been active and causing problems for me." I responded quickly.

"I don't see any proof of that." I responded too quickly, and too rashly. I wanted to find out more. She knew that. She chuckled, and moved her hands a bit closer to her chest. Now I was certain she'd left it bare under the uniform shirt, to allow for painfully clear definition. My stomach started swirling again, and I knew that awkward sense of something stifled between my legs. How many times had she done this before? And, I had to consider, why couldn't humans have evolved to develop a less easily-manipulated reproductive system?

"I'm many things, Issei, but I'm not a liar." And she leaned farther across the table, evoking the obvious question of what I'd do if I was behind her instead of in front of her. She'd be leaning a lot harder in it, for one, but that just meant she was doing what she intended to. "I can prove it to you," she added. I bet she could. Exactly what she wanted. I had to see what could be done to prove her wrong. Otherwise she was in full control, ruling through fantasies and whatever else she could.

"My answer is no," I told her, trying to be as firm as possible. In this case I believe I succeeded, in more ways than one. "You can come here and take whatever you want, but you're not going to have it." Appearing to understand that I would do everything I could not to yield, she decided she was too upfront about it. She straightened up again, dropping her hands once more in front of her, and taking a neutral expression. The smile was the last thing to go, but it lingered there for just a moment.

"Understandable." I think this was the bit that happened to worry me the most. She'd never asked me about Ddraig, or how much I'd developed my Sacred Gear usage. She'd left it vague, and as a result I had no idea what she knew. I should've made actual use of my time at Kuoh; studied them, stalked them, something! This, I thought, could've been avoided! I did my best to show none of this, but I wouldn't know until later how much she could catch.

"I assume you can see yourself out, in that case. At least you were quick about it." She raised her arm to gesture to the door, keeping it a decent distance from her breasts, and it blocked the green lamplight from reaching the middle of the table. I nodded half-intentionally. This had not ended well for either of us, if it was even an end at all. Even then I think I knew that it wasn't.

I got up and walked through the door. Kiba stood exactly where he had when I entered. He still looked like just a drone. I knew enough of how Devil peerages worked to know he was not the only one she could control like this. She had at least two more: the other known members of the Occult Research Club. And all at once it occurred to me that I could've recognized all of them earlier if I'd made the connection!

Also, a Devil's peerage could be described as a bunch of servants whose jobs were to do... whatever you asked of them, without any question, up to and including otherworldly pleasures of the flesh. Did Rias use them for that? I hoped so, obviously. Something like that had to be everyone's sickest, deepest dream, whether they wanted to ever tell themselves so or not. Ophis once told me about some guy named Freud, who believed that things like this could never be denied, or else it'll find some other way to express itself. There was something that kept it in check, but you couldn't just deny it. Rias probably read Freud.

I was out of the building before I knew it, cutting through the grass back to the main campus as if I was in any hurry at all.

* * *

I returned to class exactly as I had left it. Was the teacher still having problems getting these students to solve the same problem? Of course, I hadn't been gone long, had I?

I met up with Motohama and Matsuda as soon as school let out. Obviously, they'd heard about the meeting this morning, but they didn't say anything about it. Perhaps they just didn't want to, but of course they knew. Nothing stayed secret in this school; why else were the three of us so despised by pretty much everyone? Instead, they opted to talk about their shared experiences with some erotic thing. I can't remember much of any of it. Possibly Young'uns and Dragons, I don't know. They didn't involve me very much in their conversation. Not at first, at least. When they wrapped up whatever they were talking about, they turned to me.

"Hey, Ise, what're you doing tonight?" That was Matsuda. At first I didn't realize that he was addressing me, but I heard it.

"Hey, Issei!" Matsuda continued, getting my attention. I gave some hardly-verbal reply like "huh?"

"I was wondering if you'd have any inclination to come over later, maybe watch some of whatever for a while."

"You know how I am," I replied casually. "Probably not. Sorry." Matsuda shrugged.

"No worries. Always next time, right?"

"Yeah," I replied. "But one of these days I'll mean it, y'know."

"That's what I said to my parents after they caught me..." Motohama said, and began shaking his fist to complete the thought. I had to smile, and so did Matsuda. But Motohama kept a completely stern face. We all knew he wasn't joking.

"I have yet to make that mistake," Matsuda added. "And we _all_ know Issei's mom watches him to make sure he does it right!" This stung just a bit, but I refrained from murdering both of them for two reasons: One, they didn't ask much about my home life, and I think I preferred it that way; Two, I hate to admit it, but it was actually kind of funny. I'd certainly never heard that explanation before.

"Yup," I replied, getting into it. "I never learned properly. I still have no idea how to hold it." It was mostly just crude and not really that funny, but Motohama snorted really briefly and looked unstable on his feet for a moment. He looked up, grinning. I suddenly had the horrible image of Yasaka doing exactly what I'd depicted, made even more horrible by the fact that it really wasn't.

"That was a good one. Got any more?"

"I don't think so. I'll see what I can whip up before I actually go anywhere with you two," I told them, waving back to them as I began walking away.

I'd like to think I knew someone was following me as soon as I started off. I'll even say, for purposes of convenience, that I did. I'll also say that I knew exactly who it was, who sent them, and what their intentions were. I may even say that I was completely prepared for today's encounter with Rias Gremory, or that I was sure I was being smart by waiting for them to attack, or that I didn't react as if I'd known _for a fact_ no one had been following me before.

What am I _not_ saying? "I am many things, but I'm not a liar," says the liar before offering proof.

* * *

I got lost in my head as I walked home, as I almost always did. Especially inside my own head, Rias was a prominent force. I'd depicted Yasaka instructing me on how to pleasure myself, and all of a sudden Rias was taking her place, long red hair spilling out to one side as she studied the reproductive organ in question. "I'll prove it to you," I imagined her saying before suddenly - !

Something hit me. From behind, and not in the way describing something going in the wrong end. It was something far more painful than it should've been, and I was worried for a moment if a jackhammer had not shattered the back of my skull like antique pottery. I went down before I knew it, and had time to consider the same thing of my forehead against sidewalk. Also, what time was it?

I tried pushing myself to my feet when a foot kicked down on my back, providing just enough pressure to make that impossible. I heard a girl moaning above me. I initially wasn't sure who it was.

"Please, let me indulge myself in total domination for a while," she told me, and I knew who it was: Akeno, another member of the Occult Research Club - and by extension, one of Rias' goons. Matsuda liked her a lot. She was rumored to have a couple nasty fetishes, and no one had any trouble believing it. She continued to press down for a couple moments, in which I was already gathering myself, and the thing within me. I lost feeling in my left hand almost instantly, and crumpled to the ground, scraping myself however many places on the concrete. And I asked what time it was because all of a sudden the sky didn't look like a daylight sky anymore. Was it dusk right now?

"Yeah, that's good. Stay down," she added, and moaned again for emphasis.

_"Moans will become groans,"_ Ddraig muttered to me. _"Give me as much time as possible, and I will come forth with hellish fury." _I'd hope so, otherwise what was the point of having him!?

"Some..." I began, accidentally taking in loose gravel. I coughed it out and resumed. "Some ambush you had there." Another cough or two. "How long were you following me?"

"Mmm, can't be sure. I'll just leave that up to you!" Suddenly I wondered what I could say.

"You're hot, you know that?"

"Why, thank you! But I'm not interested. If I am, it's because I _make myself interested_. And let me tell you..." I thought I heard her smacking her lips. "I think I'm interested right now!" It made total sense.

"Good to hear." Ddraig was surfacing, but Akeno was already shifting. She removed her foot and stepped aside. Just a little bit longer...

A kick to the side and ribs certainly didn't help matters a lot, and with that same foot she rolled me over. The curb dropped away and I was laying in the street. There were no cars and no people passing by at all. Akeno skipped down and knelt on me, placing a knee on my stomach and grinning happily as I started to gasp. My entire body was starting to twitch a little. I hadn't lied: she was quite attractive, if you're into long dark hair and big chests and such. Just like Rias had not too horribly long ago, she leaned herself in close, placing more weight on the knee in my stomach. I was sputtering, and gasping like a fish. I'm not sure where the act began and actual pain ended.

"I can't really see why she likes you," she told me, licking her lips again. I was hoping to mouth something but nothing really came out. What was taking Ddraig so long!? My entire left forearm was essentially gone, and I was in some level of danger here!

"But then again..." she continued, moving her other leg on top of me as well. "My tastes are always being called into question." I needed a moment to register that she was _straddling _me. One hand came up, slender and pale and surgical in its movements, and resumed my asphyxiation. It was her right hand. She threw her head back in complete mockery of the act she was simulating. Not only was her grip horribly tight and digging into my flesh, but a buzzing sensation was starting to dull everything. I could no longer tell what the light was like because my vision was getting murky. It could've marked the extinction of every light in the universe and I couldn't tell you.

_"I would take pleasure in rejoicing with her... but all the better for simply destroying."_

About time!

Even through dimming vision and that fragile need for oxygen, the world seemed to be getting greener. Like when you clamp your eyeballs shut and when you reopen them everything looks faintly blue, but green instead. Akeno, shuddering as she distracted herself from whatever she'd been sent to do, suddenly found herself jerking away in surprise. Probably fear, too. We didn't know what she knew, or anyone else, but a little display of power never hurt anyone. Yet.

We knew to get to our feet, so we did. Already, I felt my skin turning inside out as Ddraig took his knightly Dragon body. And now two became one, and we were glorious.

"Ooh, cool," Akeno commented. "At least now there's no doubt about it: **I think I'm wet**!" That didn't concern us one bit. She stuck out her tongue at us again. Then she started to ready herself for combat, taking a recognizable stance. I was pretty sure she'd shuffled across a rug in her socks (and her socks only), judging by the way she was starting to spark. Her jet-black hair was showing a little dark blue in it. It was quite attractive.

**_"Which one of us goes first?"_** We asked with some rhetoric.

"I think you'd've already guessed I prefer to be the initiator!" And then she leapt at us as what all of a sudden looked like a very sexy ball of lightning. And that's exactly what it was. We were ready. Or so we thought.

We tumbled back the ground with enough force to turn smooth pavement to gravel, and dug hard into the ground as she was already zooming towards us again. We heard heavy beating of what we knew to the absurd leather-black batwings indicative of a Devil. If we'd known one of them was actually more crow-black with feathers, what came after this event would've been fascinatingly ironic.

"Taste the lightning, bitch!" She cackled joyfully, and we did exactly that. It didn't knock us over or back, but we were distracted as she suddenly switched mediums and tried to stab at us with what we could guess was some sort of magic spear. This was futile: it shattered in twelve places and tumbled to the ground in thirteen pieces.

We lifted ourselves from the ground and reciprocated, and with our one mouth were gathering flame when we made contact with Akeno. We were about to unleash this on her when suddenly we were... pulled off, and falling!

We never saw who or what had done so, but instead turned our attention back to Akeno. With all our unholy fury we spit flame upon her, and for a moment expected victory to be absolute. This was a lie.

Instead we were treated to a not-quite-as-tantalizing image: we had left the girl untouched as her Kuoh Academy uniform had been burned away, leaving her mostly naked. Were we not doing battle, we'd be tempted to take her and rejoice right now. Ddraig had even done so twice before when he was still whole, in the middle of battle. Issei had not inquired further into either event. Her wings were folded up behind her, again hiding the Two-Face image from us. We saw now that the sky overhead aligned with our last check of time: only four or so in the afternoon. No bother now.

We charged her again, clawed arms outstretched to grab at her naked form, and she smiled.

Once again we found ourselves being halted - not just stopped but again dragged back. This time we saw what - and who - it was.

It was a small, very light-haired girl in Kuoh uniform that Motohama would recognize. She stood above us where we'd fallen. Akeno, still proudly naked, walked over to join her, breasts bouncing freely and gravel grinding under her feet.

"Why, thank you! I'd be extremely mad at you under most circumstances, but he wasn't a very interesting opponent," she told Koneko, who crouched to scoop us up again. We tried to break free but quickly found ourself on the ground, crumbling gravel further into dust. We tried scrambling to our feet but a single well-placed kick upset balance long enough for us to fall again.

"Stay down," Koneko whispered to us matter-of-factly. "Any sign of resistance and we can kill you."

"What she said. You weren't worth the battle. Oh, I think it'd do no harm if we were to tell you what we were sent here for. You can probably guess anyway."

_ **"Go on."** _

"Our master really needs your help. Or so she says. After two of us taking down one of you, I don't think that's really necessary." She smacked her lips again. "I think it's..." Her eyes darted down, and we knew where she was looking. "It's something else, isn't it?"

_ **"You tell us."** _

Koneko dropped a foot on our chest, hard enough that it felt like something would snap. In this state we didn't need oxygen. Good thing, too.

"Normally, I absolutely _love_ backtalk," Akeno continued. "But after that pitiful display I can safely say I've lost my taste for it. And despite being the cute little sex-bait that she is, Koneko-_chan_ here can probably crack your armor if you get her motivated enough." Let's see her try. She'd likely succeed.

Instead, Ddraig elected to retreat. This was probably a bit quick, but he was certainly doing little now. After I was turned right-side-out again, I tried to exhale nervously. Koneko's foot never once moved, and as soon as the process was complete I felt a horrible _snap_ in my chest, like a big truck had rolled over me. She removed her leg, leaving what I could guess was what, two or three ribs shattered? I finished the breath as best I could, but it felt like my entire chest was in a big vise, and tightening fast.

"At least now I can make you an unwilling servant," Akeno commented. "You've had your pride broken and your body a little bit so, too. Where can you go from here? I'd say either death or bliss, and I'm not big on death." She turned to Koneko. "I think you're done here. I'll bring him back when I've had my fun, and tell _Madame President_ that I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Whatever you say," the freshman replied. I wasn't surprised that she had essentially no reaction to her club-mate was completely naked.

_"I can provide you with fire, when you're ready,"_ Ddraig told me. _"Wait until the little one is gone."_ I knew that, of course. Anyone with surprise and smarts can defeat an enemy, but anyone can also be easily quelled if they have too little of either one.

And then all at once Koneko was gone. Magic? Maybe. That left Akeno, strutting around at maybe four in the afternoon, completely naked, not a soul in sight. And why did it look like sunset? Was that what it was? Despite the time, it clearly wasn't just normal sky!

(_"I think that might be because it's not blue. It's purple."_)

And suddenly Akeno was the man with the gun. At least if I died there'd be no one to see it. Maybe Ophis and Shiva and Yasaka, but in the end who were they? They were all understanding enough, and people died all the time, right? But there was... something wrong about that. But of course there was. Wasn't there always? And of course the pain in my chest would keep me alive, as long as I was fully aware of it. Why else would it hurt so badly? Why, to keep breathing, of course!

"You look lost in thought," Akeno told me, and for a moment I wondered if I was seeing double. Instead, it was the Devil leader that was naked, and Akeno in the anonymous coat and waving the revolver. "Can't have my submissives distracted with daydreaming about me, can I?"

I laughed. Probably shouldn't have.

"No," I was yelling. "No, you cannot!" Akeno bent over, bringing an arm down on my chest. I coughed. That hurt just as much as the hand itself. Think of a trampoline, but the trampoline itself is a big wooden table suspended by coils, and you hop on it until the coils start snapping and flying every which way. Now, that big round table breaks itself to bits under the weight of the arm on it.

Now, think of a lighter. Swallow it, and let your uvula flick it to life in your throat. Take big breaths by a bonfire, or drink something hot. Get sick with an ailment of the throat and cough until something thick and red and fleshy comes out. If you're brave, swallow gasoline and spit it back up as fire. These two things together managed to make breathing kind of difficult; horribly painful, even. Especially when a naked sadomasochistic demon that looks like a big-chested schoolgirl's standing over you, grinning like she'll bite a chunk out of your neck. She whispered in my ear, and her ponytail fell over on my pinned right arm.

"Now, where were we? Oh, yes! I want to do things to you. And there's not anyone to stop me, is there? I know you want me to." All three sentences were more or less the truth.

She leaned forward, maybe to kiss me, maybe to really tear a chunk out of my neck. I never gave her the chance to show me which. I'd coughed up a lighter, and with it all of Ddraig's fire that he had given me. She must not have been expecting it, because she fell over to one side, giving me enough time to get up and run. Ddraig wouldn't return yet; not for a while, even. That left me to limp along however I could, wherever and whenever I happened to be, or with whoever would help. Respectively, that would be: painfully, across oddly quiet Kuoh streets, supposedly around four in the afternoon, and likely on my own for now.

My legs were moving before I was even aware I was on my feet. Behind me, Akeno was getting to her own feet. I had no idea what she was thinking, and I didn't care. Right now, all I needed to do was run. Of course, when you're running for your life you're not thinking too much about where you go, and so I ran in the opposite direction.

* * *

* * *

I think I might've blacked out once or twice. I had no idea where I was, and I don't think I cared - I was just a crazed animal trapped in a brown box without walls, and where time moved in bursts. Where did all the people go?

_"You're delirious,"_ the voice in my head told me. What did 'delirious' mean again? Unimportant. _Shut up_, I hoped the voice in my head heard as I spoke with my own.

I was... somewhere. Brick walls... maybe? Somewhere dark? I tripped and fell, sliced something, shrugged it off, decided it better just to lay there for a while. My chest felt tight, and there was some distant image of a... knife... stabbing me... breaking off... some disgusting sound of something _giving_. Pinching twigs between your fingers until they made a soft _pop_, and one became two. I rolled onto my back and tried not to breathe too hard. I couldn't do it. I wondered how hard I was being stabbed even now? Was I being stabbed at all?

My left arm was... Green? Why? And why would I remember that?

And... something... someone was... after me? I couldn't stay down for long, could I? Not if I cared. Did I care now? I didn't even know or care if I cared or not.

_"We need to return home,"_ the voice told me. And my response: _I thought I said..._

_Shut up!_

_But he's right. I decide to get to my feet, groaning horribly as I do, afraid I'm stabbing myself even worse. If I am, there's nothing I can do about it, is there? And if the voice refuses to shut up, I can't do anything about that either. But if I am to keep my pursuers behind me, I must move forward. Or anywhere, really, it doesn't matter much. Easy to get lost in the big city... This **was** a big city, right?_

_I'm thinking about... a girl? Yes, probably. It doesn't matter who - she's not here, is she?_

_Is she?_

_"Oh!" I hear. A small, young voice, perhaps a small child. Where am I? Two more steps, even. Just two more..._

_One..._

_Two..._

_And fall. Try to keep the hands in front, because hitting the ground unprotected can be **so much worse**. The hands are practically useless for anything else right now anyway._

_The girl - certain it is now - is some distance away. Seen her before... somewhere... once or twice._

_"Oh, Mercy!" The girl says. Haven't seen her in a while. She's... a friend. At least, hoping so. Others may not be._

_(Thoughts of... disgust? Somewhere.)_

_Can't worry about it now. Everything's getting dark, and fading fast._

_"O, Divine Mercy!"_


End file.
